The Calcified Cartilage and the Subchondral Bone Under Normal and Abnormal Conditions

The main object was to study the osteocartilaginous junction under normal and abnormal conditions from the femur and patella. To this end the author used samples removed at autopsy from normal knee joints and biopsies from patients with patellar chondromalacia. Slight differences were found between non‐weight‐bearing and weight‐bearing areas of the joint. These differences were accentuated in cases with mild cartilaginous changes, manifesting themselves in increased thickening of the calcified cartilage and the subchondral bone, the junction of the two tissues growing more irregular and the number of bony extensions from the subchondral bone into the calcified cartilage increasing. This indicated increased activity in the skeletal tissue in the presence of cartilaginous changes, as also confirmed by tetracycline labelling.