The viability of articular cartilage in fresh osteochondral allografts after clinical transplantation.

The articular cartilage of four fresh osteochondral allografts was biopsied after transplantation, and its viability was studied by autoradiography. The biopsy specimens were labeled with both 3H-cytidine, for newly synthesized ribonucleic acid, and 35S-sulphate, for newly synthesized proteoglycans. The cartilage of a lateral humeral condylar graft at twelve months had 96 to 99 per cent labeled chondrocytes, the articular cartilage of a medial femoral condylar graft at twenty-four months showed 69 to 78 per cent labeled chondrocytes, and the cartilage of a medial tibial-plateau graft at forty-one months had 90 per cent labeled cells. At six years, a lateral tibial-plateau graft had 37 per cent labeled chondrocytes.