Ultrastructure of rabbit synovial membrane.

Recent electron microscopic studies of normal and pathological synovia have given a fresh insight into the structure and function of this tissue. The structure of human (Barland, Novikoff, and Hamerman, 1962; Roy, Ghadially, and Crane, 1966) and guinea-pig synovium (Wyllie, More, and Haust, 1964) has been studied in some detail, but only brief accounts of normal rabbit synovium can be found in papers dealing with the removal of injected substances from joints (Ball, Chapman, and Muirden, 1964; Cochrane, Davies, and Palfrey, 1965). The rabbit is the largest common laboratory rodent and as such its knee joint has been the subject of much study and many experimental procedures. It is therefore necessary to study and record the ultrastructure of the synovium of this valuable experimental animal in some detail.