NEOCHONDROGENESIS IN THE SEPTAL AREA AFTER SUBMUCOUS CARTILAGINOUS RESECTION

The present work was carried out to study cartilaginous repair after subperichondrial resection of the septal cartilage, the fibrous layer of the perichondrium remaining "in situ". In these conditions, after granulation tissue formation, both neochondrogenesis and connective tissue differentiation were observed. Neochondrogenesis was found in defect areas next to the resection borders, and connective tissue formation in those further away. The transition zone between both types of newly-formed tissues showed cells with intermediate characteristics of chondrocytes and myofibroblasts. The findings provide safer proof that new chondrocytes and fibroblasts growing after septal cartilage removal originate largely from a common precursor cell either in the fibrous perichondrial layer or in the connective tissue surrounding it. The peculiar topographic distribution of the newly-formed tissues may be explained by the different effects during respiration of mechanical forces on the septal space, which lacks its cartilaginous support, and on the adjacent remaining cartilage, as well as on the borders of both.