Analysis of the knee-joint cartilage of pigs at five ages (namely foetuses from the second half of pregnancy and animals 10 weeks, 25 weeks, 3 years and 5 years old) showed that the composition approached that of adult cartilage by 25 weeks of age, the most marked differences being between foetal and 10 week-old cartilage. Protein-polysaccharides were extracted sequentially, first by brief low-speed homogenization with iso-osmotic sodium acetate, then by two extractions with 2m-CaCl(2) for 24h with gentle agitation interspersed with brief low-speed homogenization and agitation for another 24h. About half of the protein-polysaccharides were removed from foetal cartilage by the first extraction and the remainder by the second. The proportion in the first extract declined sharply with the age of the animal, but that in the first CaCl(2) extract was similar at all ages other than 10 weeks. The amount left in the residue increased approximately with the collagen content from about one-fifth at 10 weeks of age to one-third in adult and old cartilage. The proportion of medium-sized protein-polysaccharides in the extracts changed little with age after birth, but the glucosamine content increased about fivefold and the protein content almost doubled between 10 weeks and 5 years of age. Other analytical values changed little. These results cannot be explained solely by changes in the proportion of ;link-glycoprotein' in the protein-polysaccharides. Since major changes in most parameters had taken place by 25 weeks of age, the first weeks after birth may be a critical period for cartilage development in the pig.

Intensive rearing, and restricted activity, induce rapid growth in pigs, but they often become lame. Groups of normal and lame pigs reared intensively were killed when 10 or 25 weeks old. Although there were no differences in the overall composition of the knee-joint cartilage of lame and sound animals, the proteoglycans in the cartilage of the lame pigs were extracted more easily by a standardized sequential procedure and contained a higher proportion of molecules of smaller size as assessed by gel chromatography on 6% agarose and Sepharose 4B. These increased at the expense of both the larger and mediumsized molecules. Differences were most evident at 10 weeks of age, when there was twice as much of the smaller proteoglycans in the cartilage of lame pigs. Despite these size-differences, the compositions of the proteoglycans in corresponding sequential extracts of cartilage of lame and normal groups were the same, as were the changes in chemical composition that accompany development. Proteoglycans from lame animals may have undergone limited proteolysis, thus decreasing their size without changing their composition detectably. As the differences between normal and lame groups were greater at 10 weeks than at 25 weeks of age, the first weeks after birth (when the greatest changes occur in the proteoglycans and in the cartilage) may be a critical period in the maturation of articular cartilage in this species. At this time, rapid gain in weight produced by intensive rearing may be too great for the immature cartilage to bear.