The viability of articular cartilage in fresh osteochondral allografts

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after clinical transplantation. Czitrom-AA; Keating-S; Gross-AE Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. J-Bone-Joint-Surg-Am. 1990 Apr; 72(4): 574-81 The articular cartilage of four fresh osteochondral allografts was biopsied after transplantation, and its viability was studied by autoradiography. The biopsy specimens were labeled with both 3H-cytidine, for newly synthesized ribonucleic acid, and 35S-sulphate, for newly synthesized proteoglycans. The cartilage of a lateral humeral condylar graft at twelve months had 96 to 99 per cent labeled chondrocytes, the articular cartilage of a medial femoral condylar graft at twenty-four months showed 69 to 78 per cent labeled chondrocytes, and the cartilage of a medial tibial-plateau graft at forty-one months had 90 per cent labeled cells. At six years, a lateral tibial-plateau graft had 37 per cent labeled chondrocytes.