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Mechanism
Intermediate
8 min read

Cartilage

The surface two bones glide on. No vessels, no nerves, fed by movement itself — and absent from every scene, as six joint pages already point out.

The tissue the models never show

Each of Body Lab's six joint pages carries the same limitation: "the cartilage is not represented". They say so because its absence changes what you see — without it, two bones appear to touch directly, and the fit looks more abrupt than it is.
This page describes the missing tissue. It completes bone, the tendon and fascia.

A surface made to glide

Articular cartilage covers the ends of bones with a layer a few millimetres thick. Its function comes down to two words: glide and cushion.
Articular cartilage
The smooth, pearly white tissue covering the surfaces of a mobile joint. It is made largely of water, a collagen network, and molecules that hold that water in place.
hyaline cartilage
The coefficient of friction between two lubricated cartilage surfaces is among the lowest known, lower than ice on ice. That quality is the first thing lost when the tissue degrades.

How it feeds itself

Here cartilage differs from every other tissue described on this site.
It has no vessels and no nerves. No blood reaches it. Its cells — chondrocytes — are fed by diffusion from the synovial fluid bathing the joint.
And that diffusion depends on movement. Alternating load compresses the cartilage, drives out some of the fluid, then lets it soak back in on release. The tissue works like a sponge: it is the load–unload cycle that circulates what it lives on.
Certainty level · Established
Articular cartilage has no vessels and no nerves, and feeds by diffusion from the synovial fluid.
Descriptive anatomy and kinesiology describe the same organisation. It is that lack of blood supply which explains both why a cartilage lesion is not painful in itself, and why its repair is limited.
Standring S (2020) · Neumann DA (2016)

Why it repairs badly

Two consequences follow directly from the absence of vessels.
First: a cartilage lesion causes no pain coming from the cartilage itself, since it has no nerve endings. Pain, when it exists, comes from neighbouring structures — the bone beneath, the capsule, the synovial membrane.
Second: repair is slow and incomplete. Repair cells arrive by blood, and there is none. The tissue filling a lesion does not have the mechanical properties of the original cartilage.

Three tissues, three repair capacities

Tissue
Blood supply
Repair
Bone
Rich
Complete, with properties restored
Tendon
Poor
Slow, often with different tissue
Articular cartilage
None
Very limited

Two cartilages not to confuse

Articular cartilage is not the only one in the body. The menisci of the knee, the labrum of the shoulder and the hip, and the ring of the intervertebral discs are made of fibrocartilage: richer in collagen, more resistant to tension, less smooth.
The distinction matters: fibrocartilage absorbs and spreads, articular cartilage lets things glide. They face different stresses and have different properties.

What its absence from the models implies

Limit
A missing layer, everywhere
No Body Lab scene shows cartilage, for want of a separate mesh in the sources used. That has one constant visual consequence: in the models, bony surfaces appear to meet directly.
On the pages for the knee, the hip and the shoulder, the gap between two bones is therefore sharper than it really is. The menisci, by contrast, are properly represented — because they exist as distinct parts in the sources, which surface cartilage does not.

A subject that calls for care

Caution
What this page does not say
Osteoarthritis is a frequent clinical subject with many and debated causes, and cartilage occupies a central place in common discussion of it. Describing the tissue establishes neither the causes of that condition, nor its diagnosis, nor what to do about it.
Body Lab proposes here no exercise, no supplement and no loading rule. Persistent joint pain, swelling, or prolonged morning stiffness belong to a health professional.

Sources

Main sources

  • Standring S (2020). Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice, 42nd edition. Elsevier.
  • Neumann DA (2016). Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation, 3rd edition. Elsevier.
Put it into practice in Shapier

See the squat exercise

Find the squat exercise sheet in Shapier, a basic exercise that works the quadriceps.
See the squat exercise
Body Lab explains; Shapier lets you act and track.

Check my understanding

Why does a cartilage lesion cause no pain coming from the cartilage itself?
How is articular cartilage fed?
What distinguishes the menisci from articular cartilage?
Choose an answer

Read next

  • Bone
    A living tissue, threaded with vessels, taken apart and rebuilt without pause. Its form follows the load it receives, and that is what separates it from an inert frame.
    With a 3D scene
  • The knee
    Two poorly matched surfaces, an almost flat plateau under rounded condyles. Menisci, cruciate and collateral ligaments make up for that lack of fit.
    With a 3D scene
  • The tendon
    The part that links a muscle to a bone. It transmits force, briefly stores it like a spring, and adapts far more slowly than the muscle it continues.
    With a 3D scene

Where to go next

Available offline

Offline download is available in the mobile app.

Trust and method

Author
equipe-editoriale-shapier
Editorial review
Thanh Chau
Scientific review
Pending
Published on
August 2, 2026
Reviewed on August 2, 2026
Next review due August 2, 2027
Limits of this page
  • No scene shows cartilage: the anatomical sources used contain no separate mesh for it. The six joint pages each point this out on their own.
  • The repair capacities described apply to adult articular cartilage; they differ in children and by site.
  • Osteoarthritis is a clinical subject with many causes. This page describes a tissue: it establishes neither its causes, nor its diagnosis, nor what to do about it.
  • Persistent joint pain, swelling, or prolonged morning stiffness belong to a health professional.
Sources
  • Standring S (2020). Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice, 42nd edition. Elsevier.
  • Neumann DA (2016). Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation, 3rd edition. Elsevier.
Educational content. Body Lab does not diagnose and does not replace professional advice.
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