Fibrocartilage
Fibrocartilage forms a cushion between bones of the knee, where resistance to compression and to forces from multiple directions are needed. Under these conditions, collagen bundles are arranged irregularly, making this type of fibrocartilage easy to confuse with dense irregular connective tissue. 20x, 400x
Left image >
At low magnification (left image), the meniscus (knee cartilage) of fibrocartilage looks like a nondescript mass of collagen fibers. The magnification is too low for cells or nuclei to be easily identified.
Collagen bundles >
At higher magnification on the right, pink collagen fiber bundles are obvious, indicating that this tissue must be either a dense connective tissue or fibrocartilage.
Chondrocyte nuclei >
Each nucleus is surrounded by a clear halo where the chondrocyte cytoplasm was located. If this were a dense connective tissue, cells and nuclei would be flattened, because the gel-like matrix could not resist compression. The presence of a firm, cartilage matrix, staining pale blue, allows the cells to resist compression and round up, indicating that this is fibrocartilage.
Matrix
Each nucleus is surrounded by a clear halo where the chondrocyte cytoplasm was located. If this were a dense connective tissue, cells and nuclei would be flattened, because the gel-like matrix could not resist compression. The presence of a firm, cartilage matrix, staining pale blue, allows the cells to resist compression and round up, indicating that this is fibrocartilage.
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