Effect of salicylate on the surgical inducement of joint degeneration in rabbit knees.

Degenerative joint changes were produced in one knee of each of fourteen rabbits by surgical induction of instability. The involved knee in rabbits with and without systemic salicylate treatment was compared with the knee not operated on. Salicylate did not significantly change the activities of lysosomal enzymes in cartilage or synovial fluid, the uptake of tritiated thymidine, glycine, or 35S-inorganic sulphate by cartilage, or the histological manifestations of cartilage degeneration.