Our results indicate that osteophyte growth in the femoral intercondylar notch seems to correlate with the progression of medial compartment OA of the knee.

The femorotibial contact point on the sagittal plane was measured under weight-bearing conditions in 45 subjects with implanted and nonimplanted knees. They consisted of 11 knees with flat bearing inserts, 16 knees with shallow dished inserts, 10 knees with posterior lipped inserts, 10 knees with posterior stabilized bearing inserts, and 8 normal knees selected as controls. The average amount of anterior translation of the knee with a flat bearing insert was significantly larger than that of the other implanted knees. The average femorotibial contact point did not differ significantly among knees with shallow dished, posterior lipped, and posterior stabilized bearing inserts, but posterior stabilized knees exhibited most frequently a normal posterior movement. Based on our results, it may be safer to use more anteroposterior constrained bearing inserts in total knee arthroplasty, particularly when the posterior cruciate ligament is loose.

We immunohistochcmically and morphometrically examined the expression of gap junction protein connexin (Cx) in normal and crushinjured rat sciatic nerves using confocal laser scanning microscopy. Cx26 was localized in the perineurium and Cx43 was present in the perineurium and the cpineurium, whereas Cx32 was confined to the paranodal regions of the nodes of Ranvier. Double labeling for connexins and laminin revealed that Cx43 was localized in multiple layers of the perineurium, whereas Cx26 was confined to the innermost layer. Double labeling for connexins and a tight junction protein, occludin, showed that occludin frequently coexisted with Cx43, but existed separately from Cx26 in the perineurium. After crush injury, the pattern of normal Cx32 expression was initially lost but recovered, whereas Cx43 rapidly appeared in the cndoncurium and its expression was subsequently attenuated. Although crush injury produced no apparent alteration in Cx43 and occludin in the perineurium, a rapid increase and a subsequent decrease in the frequency of Cx26-positive spots during nerve regeneration were shown by morphometric analysis. These results indicate that Cx26, Cx32, and Cx43 are expressed differently in various types of cells in peripheral nerves and that their expressions are differentially regulated after injury. The expression of connexins and occludin in the perineurium suggests that perineurial cells are not uniform in type, and that the regulation of gap junctions and tight junctions is closely related in the perineurium. P-II-41 Radicicol has a potent neurotrophic effect on cultured sensory and sympathetic neurons from chick embryo.