Cilia in rat articular chondrocytes.

The cilia ultrastructural characteristics of chondrocytes from articular cartilage during its prenatal development were studied. It was established that these structures are not rare in electron microscopic observation of cartilage. They appear in the early stages of differentiation of the mesenchymal cells into chondroblasts. Ultrastructurally they show no differences during all periods of development. In some of the tangential layer cells of the newly formed articular cartilage were discover elements of more than one cillium in the same cell. It was also established that these structures project from parts of the cell presenting well developed Golgy complex.