DSC examination of the hyaline cartilage
THE HYALINE CARTILAGE
Characteristic features of the normal hyaline cartilageCon nec tive and sup port ive tis sues of the hu man body are char ac ter ized by the large amount of ba sic sub stances fill ing the gap be tween cells and sig nif i cantly in flu enc ing the me chan i cal prop er ties of the tis sue. In op po site to the con nec tive tis sues -where the ground sub stance is mainly formed by fi bers -in case of support ive tis sues, like for ex am ple car ti lage, other or ganic and in or ganic ma te ri als are typ i cal for the ba sic sub stance.Car ti lage it self is a tis sue where a rel a tively lit tle num ber of bub ble-like cells is bed ded in an elas tic but also strong ba sic sub stance. Be cause of this struc ture car ti lage is very re sis tant against com pres sion forces, but hardly withstands shear ing stresses. The most rigid form is the hyaline type cartilage, covering the ar tic u lat ing sur faces of bones. This car ti lage type has a ho mog enous ba sic sub stance, which sur rounds groups of 2-4 cells hav ing a very char acter is tic form. The plasma of these cells con tains a large amount of gly co gen and lit tle fat bub bles. The ground sub stance has a fi brous frame built of II-type colla gen. Within this frame com plex pro teins (proteoglycan) are placed, which con tain a large amount of chondroitin sul fate, later be ing the most typ i cal compo nent of hyaline car ti lage. The rest of the ground sub stance is com posed of inor ganic ma te ri als and in 70-80% of wa ter.The col la gen-proteoglycan ma trix serves as the me chan i cal frame of the car ti lage and si mul ta neously de ter mines its me chan i cal prop er ties [1]. The colla gen fi bers hav ing a tri ple he lix form are re spon si ble for ten sile strength while proteoglycans are re spon si ble for com press ibil ity. Hyaline car ti lage is a tis sue hav ing a com plex and ac tive me tab o lism from the bio chem i cal point of view.