Metabolism of Cartilage

Abstract

IT has been found by means of Warburg's manometric method that the metabolism of cartilage is entirely anærobic; it splits glucose to form lactic acid at a rate of about 0.2 c.mm. carbon dioxide (produced from bicarbonate solution) per mgm. dry weight per hour, that is, about a tenth the rate of nearly related connective tissues forming the synovial villi, and a fiftieth the rate of the choroid plexus¹. By means of cell counts and corrections for specific gravity and drying, it has been shown that this glycolysis is essentially of the same order per cell as in most other adult tissues. This glycolysis is the same whether measured under ærobic or anærobic conditions. Rabbit cartilage was kept for a fortnight under aseptic anærobic conditions in bicarbonate Ringer solution with glucose, and its glycolysis measured throughout. At the end of the experiment it had only fallen to 0.09 from an initial (c.mm. carbon dioxide per mgm. dry weight per hour in nitrogen) of 0.34.