Fig. 5.

Representative images of the distal tibia revealing that the missing fragment (MF) group demonstrated significantly worse PTOA with regional loss of the articular surface (AS), loss of subchondral bone (SB) by way of osteoclasts (OC) activity, proteoglycan depletion (PD), chondrocyte clustering (Cl), a loss of the superficial layer (SL), surface discontinuity (SD), modified/damaged regions of the calcified cartilage (CC), and a higher amount of vascular invasion (VI) compared to the anatomic fixation (AF) group. Specimens in both the AF and MF groups also demonstrated tide mark ™ duplication and vertical fissures (VF) in the articular cartilage (AC) in select regions.