Background:

articular cartilage is an important avascular, alinphatic and aneural tissue in joints, it is mainly affected by degenerative disease.

Objective:

to update knowledge about normal, aging and degenerative articular cartilage.

Methods:

a three months research and analysis were conducted from October 1st, 2018 to December 31th, 2018. Our review included 164 articles published in PubMed, Hinari, SciELO and Medline databases by using EndNote. The words used were cartilage AND osteoarthritis, cartilage AND knee osteoarthritis, cartilage. Fifty citations were selected, 48 of all them within the last five years, were used to write the present paper.

Results:

macro and microscopic features of articular cartilage were mentioned as well as its organization in zones and areas. Degenerative process was described at different levels, and in aging.

Conclusions:

articular cartilage is the most affected tissue in osteoarthritis. Cartilage is organized by zones and areas which are affected as degenerative disease progresses. The start point of osteoarthritis is enzymatic and gradually affects synovial tissue and sub-chondral bone. It is important to know the main differences between aging and degenerative cartilages.

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