Articular cartilage

Articular cartilage is the connective tissue that covers the bone ends in diarthrodial joints (freely movable joints). It enables smooth joint movement and facilitates the transmission of loads with a low frictional coefficient. Cartilage is composed of long-chain polymers swollen in a large amount of water. The most abundant of these are collagen and a proteoglycan called aggrecan.

One of the main characteristics of articular cartilage is the absence of vessels, nerves, and lymph (Figure 1). This makes this tissue very limited in terms of self-regeneration compared to other tissues in the body, which leads to different types of injuries.

Figure 1: Structure of articular cartilage.