metaphyseal growth cartilage

anatomy

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Last updated

June 30, 2026

Quick Summary

Metaphyseal growth cartilage is a crucial area in bone development, specifically located at the ends of growing long bones. This cartilage forms a plate, known as the epiphyseal plate, which is essential for longitudinal bone growth.12

In this growth plate, cartilage cells, or chondrocytes, continuously divide and grow. As new cartilage is formed on one side, the cartilage on the other side degenerates, calcifies, and is replaced by bone-forming cells (osteocytes). This process allows bones to lengthen until skeletal maturity is reached, at which point the growth plates fuse and ossify.21

Disruptions to this metaphyseal growth mechanism can lead to various developmental disorders, such as rickets and achondroplasia, and can also be affected by inherited conditions.13

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Bone tissue and the metaphyseal growth cartilage (the cartilage between the end of the bone and the shaft that later becomes bone) may be injured during the course of radiation treatment of tumours. The risk of this injury cannot always be avoided. The most common radiation injury to bone…
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