The Histochemical Distribution Of Collagen In The Osteoarthritic Human Cartilage

Bae, Sang Cheol; Jung, Sung Soo; Lee, In Hong; Yoo, Dae Hyun; Kim, Seong Yoon; Chung, Hyun Kee; Choi, Il Yong

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Osteoarthritis is a disorder or group of disorders affecting synovial joint, characterized at the tissue level by degenerative, regenerative and reparative structural changes in cartilage, synovium and bone. The histopathological understanding of osteoarthritis would help to clear the pathogenesis and evaluate the activity and progression of the disease. We studied the histochemical distribution of collagen in the search for and accurate morphometric m~rker for osteoarthritic progression.
METHODS
The immunohistochemical analysis by monoclonal antibodies to type I, II and III collagen, the Masson's trichrome stain and the Picrosirius stain and polarization microscopy were performed in 10 osteoarthritis cartilages and 1 normal control cartilage.
RESULTS
1)By the immunohistochemical analysis, type II collagen was diffusely expressed in both normal and osteoarthritis cartilage but the expression of type I and III collagen was only shown around chondrocytes in the osteoarthritis cartilage. 2) There was no difference in Masson's trichrome stain of the normal and osteoarthritis cartilage. 3) By the Picrosirius stain and polarization microscopy, there was less diffuse birefringence of collagen and increased perichondronal birefringence in the osteoarthritis cartilage in comparison to normal cartilage.
CONCLUSIONS
The Picrosirius-polarization method may be considered one of the useful morphometriic methods for the progression of osteoarthrits.