Articular cartilage, seems to be the ideal tissue with which to make joints function best. Unfortunately, articular cartilage is one of the first tissues in the body to age and die, and it has poor powers of regeneration. All horses develop degenerative joint disease soon or later- some sooner than later. Degenerative joint disease is a wearing away of the protective joint cartilage, causing pain and reluctance to move around. Definitely not a good thing for the racehorse.
Cartilage is made up of chondrocytes, and a matrix, or ground substance.
Chondrocytes can grow and function without a blood supply. Actually, articular cartilage is a soft, porous, highly specialized connective tissue composed of chondrocytes, collagen, proteoglycans and water. Proteoglycans are complex biochemicals made of proteins connected to backbones of oligosaccharides on which hang many molecules of chondroitin sulfate. The surface of the articular cartilage has small, flattened, elongated chondrocytes. There are many tightly woven, closely packed, fine collagen fibers at the surface.