Healthy Cartilage Is Vital to Joint Function
Cartilage is an important component of healthy joints.
Inosteoarthritis, your cartilage becomes damaged or wears away.
What Is Cartilage?
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This essential building block of your body serves a useful purpose.
Your body contains three different types of cartilagehyaline, elastic, and fibrous.
Hyaline cartilage is present in the joints, nasal septum, and air tube.
Elastic cartilage is found in the ear, part of the nose, and the air tube.
Fibrous cartilage is found in themeniscus.
Cartilage is a tough, but flexible tissue that has two components: water and matrix.
About 65% to 80% of articular cartilage is water, but it decreases with normal aging.
The matrix is comprised of collagens, proteoglycans, and noncollagenous proteins.
Cartilage lacks a blood supply, nerves, and lymphatic system.
Chondrocytes are the only cells normally found in cartilage.
Chondrocytes produce and maintain the cartilage matrix.
The articular cartilage serves as the cushion within the joint, and as a shock absorber.
What Happens When Cartilage Wears Down
Cartilage can degrade over time if you’re not careful.
Cartilage damage occurs for various reasons.
Growth or repair of cartilage, however, has limited potential.
Damage to the articular cartilage can be seen on X-ray.
On anX-ray, cartilage damage is seen as anarrowing of the joint spacebetween the bones that form the joint.
In the knee,loss of articular cartilagetypically correlates with loss of meniscal cartilage.
Loss of articular cartilage creates extra stress on the ends of the bones that form the joint.
New techniques are being tried to restore articular cartilage.
Osteochondral grafting, autologous chondrocyte implantation, and mesenchymal stem cell regeneration attempt to restore articular cartilage.
Currently, this procedure treats knee injuries.
Early detection and early treatment of osteoarthritis can help to prevent further cartilage damage.
The best chance for preventing or slowing cartilage damage comes with early treatment.
Your healthcare provider will help you decide what’s best for you.
Preserve cartilage by keeping yourjoints healthy.
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American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Arthritis of the knee.
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American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon.Articular cartilage restoration.
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American College of Rheumatology.Osteoarthritis.
