HISTOMORPHOMETRIC CHANGES OF THE KNEE JOINT CARTILAGE AND SYNOVIAL MEMBRANE IN THE FORMATION OF EXPERIMENTAL POSTTRAUMATIC OSTEOARTHROSIS

Objective - histological and morphometric examination of joint structures in the normal state and after the modeling of traumatic injury. Materials and methods. The knee joint injury was modelled in 30 outbred albino rats. During the course of experiment, the morphology of the joint tissues was studied, the thickness of the cartilage and synovial membrane, and the numerical density of chondrocytes were evaluated morphometrically. Results. The irreversible degenerative-destructive processes, which affected all the layers and predominated in the tangential (superficial) and transitional (intermediate) zones, were revealed in the synovial membrane and in the cartilage. It was found that the total thickness of the cartilage increased to 248.14±3.91 μm, that of the synovial intima - up to 49.36±0.82 μm, and the numerical density of chondrocytes decreased to 172.48±4.51 per 1 mm2. Conclusions. The decrease in the numerical density of chondrocytes in experimental posttraumatic arthritis contributes to the development of irreversible destructive processes in the articular cartilage. Destructive changes prevailed in the superficial and intermediate zones of the cartilage and were associated with degenerative transformation of the synovial membrane, accompanied by an increase in the thickness of the synovial intima.

osteoarthrosis, articular cartilage, morphometry, numerical density of chondrocytes