Abstract
The clinical attributes and contributions of articular cartilage are readily apparent in daily orthopaedic practice. This thin layer of rubbery tissue lining the surface of joints enables the smooth, pain-free gliding that we take for granted in all skeletal motion. Its disruption can relegate an aging patient from dynamic self-sufficiency to disabled dependency or demote an athlete from star to spectator. As with any tissue subject to injury or deterioration, healing is critical to recovery of function. Yet, as is evident from clinical practice, function is not readily restored to damaged or diseased joints. For this reason, articular cartilage has been a particularly intriguing problem and one that has evoked attention for centuries. Hippocrates viewed injuries of this tissue as incurable, and over the intervening years numerous anatomists, physicians, and biologists have offered evidence and opinions in support of or against the generally held concept that wounds in articular cartilage cannot heal.1–12
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