QUANTITATIVE-EVALUATION OF NUTRITIONAL PATHWAYS FOR THE POSTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT AND THE LATERAL COLLATERAL LIGAMENT IN RABBITS

The cruciate ligament of the knee receives its nutrition from a direct vascular supply and by permeation oi nutrients from the synovial flui d. The contributions of these two routes as nutritional pathways are n ot known in detail. In this study, we injected [H-3]methyl glucose as a tracer intravenously or directly into the knee of rabbits. Tracer co ncentrations in plasma, synovial fluid, the posterior cruciate ligamen t (PCL), and the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) were analysed by a pharmacokinetic compartment model. The contribution of [H-3]methyl glu cose permeation from the synovial fluid during steady state was calcul ated at 44.3% in the PCL and at 39.0% in the LCL. Although these resul ts indicated that more than half the nutrition for both ligaments is p rovided by its vascular supply, synovial fluid permeation is also an i mportant transport route for small molecules for the PCL and the LCL, which is an extra-articular structure.