Background: Treatment of meniscal tears is necessary to maintain the long-term health of the knee joint. Morphological elements, particularly vascularity, that play an important role in meniscal healing are known to change during skeletal development. Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate meniscal vascularity, cellularity, collagen, and proteoglycan content by age and location during skeletal development. Study Design: Descriptive laboratory study. Methods: Medial and lateral menisci from 14 male and 7 female cadavers aged 1 month to 11 years were collected and evaluated. For each meniscus, histologic and immunohistologic techniques were used to establish the ratio of the area of proteoglycan (safranin O) positivity to the total area (proteoglycan ratio), collagen type I and type II immunostaining positivity, number of blood vessels, and cell density. These features were evaluated over the entire meniscus and also separately in 5 circumferential segments: anterior root, anterior horn, body, posterior horn, and posterior root. Additionally, cell density and number of blood vessels were examined in 3 radial regions: inner, middle, and periphery. Results: Age was associated with a decrease in meniscal vessel count and cell density, while the proteoglycan ratio increased with skeletal maturity. Differences in vessel counts, cellular density, and proteoglycan ratio in different anatomic segments as well as in the inner, middle, and peripheral regions of the developing menisci were also observed. Collagen immunostaining results were inconsistent and not analyzed. Conclusion: The cellularity and vascularity of the developing meniscus decrease with age and the proteoglycan content increases with age. All of these parameters are influenced by location within the meniscus. Clinical Relevance: Age and location differences in meniscal morphology, particularly in the number of blood vessels, are expected to influence meniscal healing.

Meniscal tears are a common orthopedic injury, yet their healing is difficult to assess post-operatively. This impedes clinical decisions as the healing status of the meniscus cannot be accurately determined non-invasively. Thus, the objectives of this study were to explore the utility of a goat model and to use quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, histology, and biomechanical testing to assess the healing status of surgically induced meniscal tears. Adiabatic T1ρ, T2, and T2* relaxation times were quantified for both operated and control menisci ex vivo. Histology was used to assign healing status, assess compositional elements, and associate healing status with compositional elements. Biomechanical testing determined the failure load of healing lesions. Adiabatic T1ρ, T2, and T2* were able to quantitatively identify different healing states. Histology showed evidence of diminished proteoglycans and increased vascularity in both healed and non-healed menisci with surgically induced tears. Biomechanical results revealed that increased healing (as assessed histologically and on MRI) was associated with greater failure load. Our findings indicate increased healing is associated with greater meniscal strength and decreased signal differences (relative to contralateral controls) on MRI. This indicates that quantitative MRI may be a viable method to assess meniscal tears post-operatively.