Figure 3.

(i) Femoral head is present at left, physis (*) at centre and hypertrophic zone of physis at far right. All chondrocytes of physis are intact. Central cells within epiphysis (femoral head) show early hypertrophic changes. Bar=50 μm. (ii) Higher power view of femoral head epiphysis shows characteristic epiphyseal hypertrophic cell changes, (arrow) and centrally. Bar=50 μm. (iii) Higher power view of physis shows virtually all hypertrophic chondrocytes intact and filling their lacunae with preserved circular nuclei also seen. Even at the lowermost level, the hypertrophic cells remain intact (arrow). Bar=20 μm. Tissues were fixed in 1% PFA, 1.3% GA and 0.5% RHT (mOsm 606), embedded in JB-4 plastic and stained with 0.5% toluidine blue.