[2][3] As cartilage does not have lymph glands or blood vessels, the movements of solutes, including nutrients, occur via diffusion within the fluid compartments contiguous with adjacent tissues.

[citation needed] When a slice of hyaline cartilage is examined under the microscope, it is shown to consist of chondrocytes of a rounded or bluntly angular form, lying in groups of two or more in a granular, or almost homogeneous matrix.

These cavities are actually artificial gaps formed from the shrinking of the cells during the staining and setting of the tissue for examination.

The articular cartilage extracellular matrix has a highly specialized architecture that is zonally organized: the superficial zone consists mostly of type II collagen fibers aligned parallel to the articular surface to resist shear forces, whereas the deep zone consists of the same fibers aligned perpendicularly to the bone interface to absorb compressive loads.

[5] The biochemical breakdown of the articular cartilage results in osteoarthritis – the most common type of joint disease.

[8] Articular cartilage development begins with interzone condensation of a type II collagen positive limb bud at the future joint site.

Overexpression of hyaline-cartilage specific anabolic factors, such as FGF18, appears to restore the balance between cartilage loss and generation.