Breakdown of articular cartilage by vascular tissue.

A study has been made with porcine tissues in organ culture of the effect of vascular tissue on articular cartilage. Isolated explants of cartilage were maintained alive for 14 days without breakdown of the matrix. Contact with vascular tissue produced extensive loss of proteoglycan and collagen with fibroblastic transformation of the chondrocytes. The breakdown was partly due to a direct effect on the matrix and partly to activation of catabolic processes in the chondrocytes. Vascular tissue produced exactly the same loss of matrix as synovial tissue.