The effect of hydrocortisone acetate on adult human articular cartilage.

Living adult human articular cartilage has been maintained in tissue culture for eight days. Cartilage explants were cultured in one of three concentrations of hydrocortisone acetate or as control explants without this drug. The concentrations of hydrocortisone used were 0.01 microng/ml, 0.1 microng/ml and 1.0 mg/ml. The amount of proteoglycan shed into the medium was measured and no significant difference was found between the explants exposed to hydrocortisone and those that were not. These results suggest that hydrocortisone does not have a catabolic effect on the proteoglycan of articular cartilage. The widely held view that intra-articular corticosteroid injection causes cartilage damage, must remain in doubt.