Calcium pyrophosphate crystal formation in model hydrogels. II. Hyaline articular cartilage as a gel.

We studied calcium pyrophosphate crystal formation in an in vitro cartilage system. Two parallel troughs were excavated in tibial plateau articular cartilage obtained postmortem. One well was filled with solid sodium pyrophosphate, the other with calcium chloride. After incubation for 24 h at either 10 degrees C or 37 degrees C the precipitate band between the troughs was analyzed for the size and nature of crystals present. In subsequent experiments, the cartilage was pretreated by laceration, contusion, trypsin or hyaluronidase denaturation. We found that cartilage denaturation resulted in formation of larger crystals but that the crystal product in all experiments was identical, alpha CaNa2P2O7.4H2O a nonphysiologic crystal.