Differences in collagen metabolism between normal and osteoarthritic human articular cartilage.

Normal human articular cartilage synthesizes only one type of a chain, which exhibits the chromatographic behavior of the alpha(l)(II) chains described for chick and bovine cartilage. Osteoarthritic cartilage, on the other hand, synthesizes in addition a collagen containing alpha(2) chains and beta components. The different structural features of the two types of collagen may account for some of the functional defects of osteoarthritic cartilage.