Figure 6.

Human knee meniscus exhibiting a degenerative pattern, imaged with routine light microscopy (a) and with near-infrared, reflectance confocal microscopy (CM) (b–d). This degenerative pattern consists of an impairment in the cellular density and distribution, that is, an absence of the decreasing cell gradient from surface (a and b, arrowhead) to depth (a and b, star) described previously for normal meniscus. Matrix architecture appears greatly disorganized and heteromorphic, with thinned matrix fibre bundles (c, arrows) and occasional sites of meniscal tear (d, arrowhead). Scale bar represents 100 µm.