Stretching may provoke Dupuytren's

The relationships between mechanical forces and the biochemistry of Dupuytren's are only recently being sorted out. Clinically, Dupuytren's activity responds to changes in mechanical stresses: active nodules soften in response to reducing tension by adjacent fasciotomy; disease activity after fasciectomy may be provoked by overly aggressive stretching and splinting. Biochemically, this may relate to the finding that, in contrast to cells from normal fascia, cells from Dupuytren's tissue produce ß-catenin and fibronectin in response to stretching forces: http://www.dupuytrenfoundation.org/DupPDFs/2003_Howard_1029.pdf