Does cartilage contain blood vessels?
1 Answer
Dec 22, 2015
No! Cartilage is avascular and so does not contain any blood vessels.
Explanation:
Cartilage is both avascular (no blood vessels) and aneural (no nerves). As there are no blood vessels to deliver nutrients, cartilage obtains nutrients through the synovial fluid or perichondrium. This is explained in a different answer I wrote here.
Interestingly, because of it's lack of blood vessels, cartilage takes longer to grow and repair than other tissues.
