Development of vascularization in the chondroepiphysis of the rabbit.

Although numerous studies have addressed the presence of cartilage canals within developing epiphyses, the chronology of their appearance and their vascular contribution to the developing chondroepiphysis remain to be studied. We have selected a model, similar to the developing human skeletal system, in which extensive cartilage canal development precedes the subsequent secondary ossification process. In the rabbit proximal tibia, both chondroepiphyseal and vascular (cartilage canals) development were quantified from the first evidence of vessels until the formation of the secondary center of ossification. The volume of hyaline cartilage increased 25 times after intraepiphyseal vessels were initially observed. The blood supply, measured in cartilage canal volume, increased 400-fold over the same period. Three distinct cartilage canal morphologies were identifiable before the formation of the secondary center of ossification: (a) an early phase, in which the canals appeared as infoldings derived from the perichondrium; (b) a reactive phase, occurring simultaneously with chondrocyte hypertrophy and characterized by a very large increase in mesenchymal cells within the cartilage canal; and (c) a vascular phase, coincident with mineralization of the matrix, in which the familiar, unitary canal morphology was replaced by that of a vascular plexus. While matrix mineralization and the formation of bone seem dependent on critical cellular events, notably chondrocyte hypertrophy, the role that the vascular supply plays in developing sufficient biological inertia for the ossifying transition must not be underestimated.