[Bone Cell Biology Assessed by Microscopic Approach. Regenerative medicine of cartilage].

The cartilage is composed of chondrocytes, which are surrounded by large amounts of extracellular matrices. The cartilaginous matrices are rich in type II collagen and proteoglycans. These proteoglycans contain a large volume of water, yielding a strong mechanical properties. As the cartilage tissues have limited capacity for self-repair, those that are once damaged are not likely to be repaired from natural healing. Thus, the cartilage regenerative medicine has been progressed well. The author overviews the properties of carilage and present state of cartilage regenerative medicine.