POSTNATAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTICULAR CARTILAGE OF RAT KNEE JOINTS

概要

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We immobilized the unilateral knee joints of rats and studied the alterations of cartilage in the contralateral joints between day 15 and 20 after birth by using light and electron microscopy. Fifteen day old Wister strain male rats were used in this study. The experimental rats were divided into two groups; immobilized and control groups. The left knees of the immobilized group rats were fixed in extended position with a rigid fiberglass cast from the trunk to the foot. Four rats on each day were killed and the right knee joints were observed on days 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The articular cartilage in the immobilized group showed an increased cellular population and there were flattened or elliptical shaped cells with inadequate cytoplasm. A most pronounced observation was the occurrence of numerous gap junctions that could be found between many pairs of chondrocytes in 20 day old rats of the immobilized group. We believe these phenomena are the survival reactions of immature articular cartilage subjected to abnormal stresses.
名古屋市立大学の論文