BACKGROUND Articular cartilage homoeostasis is critical for joint function. The steady state homoeostasis of articular cartilage is a balance between anabolic morphogens such as cartilage derived morphogenetic proteins (CDMPs) and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) of the BMP family and catabolic cytokines such as interleukin (IL)1, IL17, and tumour necrosis factor alpha. Although bone and arti...

Contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography (CEμCT) with phosphotungstic acid (PTA) has shown potential for detecting collagen distribution of articular cartilage. However, the selectivity of the PTA staining to articular cartilage constituents remains to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the dependence of PTA for the collagen content in bovine articular cartilage. Adjacen...

The successful non-invasive imaging of articular cartilage in the equine patient is likely one of the most sought after goals in equine veterinary medicine. Articular cartilage may be one of the most difficult tissues to accurately image in its entirety in the in vivo horse. Magnetic Resonance Imaging has proven extremely useful for the successful imaging of articular cartilage in humans. For t...

Articular cartilage is the highly specialized connective tissue of diarthrodial joints. Its principal function is to provide a smooth, lubricated surface for articulation and to facilitate the transmission of loads with a low frictional coefficient (Figure 1). Articular cartilage is devoid of blood vessels, lymphatics, and nerves and is subject to a harsh biomechanical environment. Most importa...

conclusions it can be concluded that due to some bioactive and nutrient factors, mscs secretions could be used for recovery of oa as well as prevention of articular cartilage matrix degeneration, using a high dose of cell secretions. results the results revealed a decrease of proteoglycan content in the superficial and intermediate zones and presence of surface fibrillation. therefore, oa induc...

Introduction The regeneration of articular cartilage remains a challenge and is an unmet clinical need in orthopaedic surgery. Since hyaline articular cartilage will not heal spontaneously, these lesions eventually lead to degenerative joint disease. Cartilage abrasion, subchondral drilling, and microfracture techniques stimulate articular cartilage healing by introducing endogenous “stem cells...

Articular cartilage lesions of the knee joint are common in patients of varying ages. Some articular cartilage lesions are focal lesions located on one aspect of the tibiofemoral or patellofemoral joint. Other lesions can be extremely large or involve multiple compartments of the knee joint and these are often referred to as osteoarthritis. There are numerous potential causes for the developmen...

With increasing life expectancy, the demand for preservation of native articular cartilage is increasing to delay joint arthroplasties. In the knee, there are many different strategies to preserve the articular cartilage including but not limited to corrective osteotomies, chondral injury restoration, intraarticular injection of cells or growth factors(PRP). However, One of the most important s...

The collagens of growth plate and articular cartilage from 5-6 month old commercial pigs were characterised. Growth plate cartilage was found to contain less total collagen than articular cartilage as a proportion of the dry weight. Collagen types I, II, VI, IX and XI are present in both growth plate and articular cartilage whereas type X is found exclusively in growth plate cartilage. Types II...

The view of articular cartilage as a non-regeneration organ has been challenged in recent years. The articular cartilage consists of distinct zones with different cellular and molecular phenotypes, and the superficial zone has been hypothesized to harbour stem cells. Furthermore, the articular cartilage demonstrates a distinct pattern regarding stem cell markers (that is, Notch-1, Stro-1, and v...