Electron microscopic study of condylar cartilage of rat mandible stained with ruthenium red: proteoglycans and hypertrophic chondrocytes

Ultrastructure of hypertrophic chondrocytes and extracellular matrix in condylar cartilage of rat mandible was studied in conjunction with ruthenium red staining. Special care was given to the preservation of proteoglycans in the extracellular matrix. Ruthenium red-positive granules were observed in the pericellular matrix of condylar chondrocytes, and their size and number increased around the hypertrophic cells. However, these granules disappeared in the lowest hypertrophic zone, in which uncalcified cartilage matrix was also disintegrated prior to initiation of ossification. Moreover, hypertrophic chondrocytes observed at the lowest zone appeared intact in their ultrastructural features, i.e., containing numbers of lysosomes and coated vesicles in the cytoplasm facing the blood capillaries. The results strongly suggest that the lowest hypertrophic chondrocytes in rat condylar cartilage may have an active role in the degradation and resorption of the pericellular matrix, especially proteoglycans, and uncalcified matrix, which changes seem an essential step for the initiation of endochondral ossification.