Osteoarthritis is the most frequent articular disease which affects 12 % of the white population. Its treatment costs three times more than the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A number of risk factors for the development of osteoarthritis was detected. The main ones are age, sex, race, genetic factors, life style and obesity. Processes which take place during ageing of cartilage are in many respects similar to the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. The cartilage loses its elasticity and firmness as a result of wear and in particular as a result of qualitative and quantitative changes in the capacity of chondrocytes to synthetize components of the extracellular matrix. Deterioration of the quality of cartilage is also promoted by posttranslation changes of the macromolecules with a high biological half-life and changes in the regulation of proteolytic enzyme production. At present it is, however not clear whether the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis includes identical processes as age-dependent metabolic dysfunctions or whether it is a time dependent disease which differs from normal ageing and has different causal mechanisms.

        Key words: articular cartilage, ageing, pathogenesis of osteoarthritis