Ultrastructural evidence for fibril-to-fibril associations in articular cartilage and their functional implication.

This study presents ultrastructural evidence for the presence of a variety of fibril-to-fibril interactions or associations in the architecture of the general matrix of articular cartilage. These interactions are believed to serve a higher purpose of repeatedly constraining an overall radial arrangement of fibrils into an array of oblique interconnecting segments thus creating a three dimensional meshwork within which the hydrated ground substance is constrained. It is argued that any reduction in these interfibrillar interactions will allow the oblique fibril segments to revert to a low energy radial configuration, thus explaining the presence of such arrays prominent in various degenerate forms of articular cartilage.