[Study of the concentration of glycosaminoglycans in cartilage from normal and osteoarthritic femoral head].

The biochemical composition of cartilage was studied in relation to the site of the sample and the age on 20 normal femoral heads and in relation to the histological appearance of the tissues on 34 arthrosic femoral heads. The collagen and glycosaminoglycan content of normal cartilage is identical in the four poles of the femoral head but becomes reduced with age. The chondroitin sulphate content falls slightly but slowly during ageing. In arthrosis, the glycosaminogylcan content is reduced when the cartilage is eroded and remains roughly normal when the cartilage is macroscopically normal or osteophytic. The cartilage of the osteophyte differs, however, radically from normal articular cartilage by a very high water content and by the presence of glycosaminoglycans which are mainly dialysiable. Similar modifications, that are less marked, occur in the macroscopically normal cartilage of the arthrosic femoral head and suggest the role of a disorder of glycosaminoglycan synthesis in the etiology of certain cases of arthrosis.