Figure 2.

Chondrocyte de-differentiation process in cartilage lesion. (A) When cartilage damage occurs, (B) chondrocytes that are embedded near the lesion become actively proliferative and start to change the surrounding environment by synthesizing collagen type I. (C) The proliferative chondrocytes eventually alter into a fibroblast-like characteristics and form a thick layer of fibrocartilage-like tissue and induce degradation and dedifferentiation in the nearby hyaline cartilage tissue.