Articular cartilage: Structure, function, and pathophysiology

In the following two subsections we discuss the structure and function of articular cartilage and give a broad background to the pathophysiology of arthritis before discussing the links between nutrition and arthritis and how diet affects skeletal development. We also discuss how nutrition might predispose humans and animals to arthritis or protect us from it. We then discuss the links between nutrition and joint disease in the context of our studies on glucose transporters in chondrocytes. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg