CAETILAGE 



FIG. 54. WHITE FIBROCARTILAGE, 

 SHOWING A GROUP OF OVAL CAR- 

 TILAGE CELLS. 



From the semilunar cartilage of the 

 knee of man. Hematein and eosin. 

 x 550. 



FIBROCARTILAGE. This tissue forms the interarticular car- 

 tilages of the lower jaw, the clavicle, and the knee ; composes the 



intervertebral disks and the other 

 cartilaginous symphyses of the body ; 

 lines the tendon grooves of the bones, 

 and forms the glenoid ligament of 

 the shoulder and the cotyloid liga- 

 ment of the hip. Fibrocartilage is 

 intermediate in structure between 

 hyaline cartilage and such very dense 

 white fibrous tissue as occurs in the 

 tendons of muscles. At the attached 

 margin of the cartilaginous plates its 

 tissue is continued by imperceptible 



gradations into the surrounding fibrous connective tissues. Like 

 the other forms of cartilage, this variety is also non-vascular and 

 devoid of nerves. 



Microscopically, fibrocartilage differs from such dense white 

 fibrous tissue as is found in the ligaments and tendons, in that the 

 meshes of the dense fibrous tissue of fibrocartilage are everywhere 

 permeated by a hyaline matrix, in which, here and there, are small 

 groups of ovoid cartilage cells. Each cartilage cell is occasionally 

 surrounded by a characteristic, concentric, lamellar appearance 

 of the adjacent matrix, the so-called " capsule." 



Plates of fibrocartilage, unlike the other varieties, are not sur- 

 rounded by a perichondrium. 



