Hyaline cartilage (aka “Gristle") is a type of cartilage found on many joint surfaces. It is pearly bluish in colour with firm consistency and considerable collagen. It contains no nerves or blood vessels, and its structure is relatively simple.
Hyaline cartilage is covered externally by a fibrous membrane, called the perichondrium, except at the articular ends of bones and also where it is found directly under the skin, i.e. ears and nose. This membrane contains vessels that provide the cartilage with nutrition.
If a thin slice is examined under the microscope, it will be found to consist of cells of a rounded or bluntly angular form, lying in groups of two or more in a granular or almost homogeneous matrix.
The cells, when arranged in groups of two or more, have generally straight outlines where they are in contact with each other, and in the rest of their circumference are rounded.
They consist of clear translucent protoplasm in which fine interlacing filaments and minute granules are sometimes present; embedded in this are one or two round nuclei, having the usual intranuclear network.
The cells are contained in cavities in the matrix, called cartilage lacunae; these are actually artificial gaps formed by the shrinking of the cells during the staining and setting of the tissue for observation. The interterritorial space between the isogenous cell groups contains relatively more collagen fibers, causing it to maintain its shape while the actual cells shrink, creating the lacunae.
This constitutes the so-called capsule of the space.
Each lacuna is generally occupied by a single cell, but during the division of the cells it may contain two, four, or eight cells. (see isogenous group)
Hyaline cartilage also contains chondrocytes which are cartilage cells that produce the matrix. Hyaline cartilage matrix is mostly made up of type II collagen and Chondroitin sulfate, both of which are also found in elastic cartilage.
Hyaline cartilage exists on the ventral ends of ribs; in the larynx, trachea, and bronchi; and on the articular surface of bones.
Read more about Hyaline Cartilage: Articular Cartilage
Famous quotes containing the words hyaline and/or cartilage:
“Sunday at noon through hyaline thin air
Sees down the street,
And in the camera of my eye depicts
Row-houses and row-lives:
Glass after glass, door after door the same,”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“An English family consists of a few persons, who, from youth to age, are found revolving within a few feet of each other, as if tied by some invisible ligature, tense as that cartilage which we have seen attaching the two Siamese.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)