A biological and morphological comparison of cartilage cells in various kinds of lesions.
Cartilage is an important tissue, biologically and morphologically intermediate between connective tissue and bone. Much of the current knowledge on the biology of cartilage is still hypothetical, particularly that on the reproduction of mature cartilage cells. The existence of cartilage, and its formation, are dependent on certain conditions of metabolism, which for the most part differ strongly from those under which connective tissue or bone are produced, though these tissues are often closely related morphologically. One of the greatest problems in this field of human pathology is the total lack of correspondence between the micromorphology of most cartilaginous tumours and their biological properties, especially malignant proliferation. Thus cartilage lesions, particularly cartilaginous tumours, call for special, often unconventional methods, for even a superficial assessment. It appears that for evaluation of especially the biological properties of cartilage cells, the submicroscopic appearance of the nucleus is of special importance. A suitable model for the study of biological and morphological correlations of cartilage is the ossification of the cartilaginous skeleton, the appearance and existence of cartilage-cells in tissue cultures, and the behaviour of cartilaginous tissue under specific biomechanical conditions.
D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology; D002356:Cartilage / Q000473:pathology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002813:Chondrosarcoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis