Histological prenatal studies on the development of human glenoid labrum

ABSTRACT

In this work, histological studies were done on transverse sections from thewhole posterior part of human glenoid labra in different chosen prenatal agesand adult age. In eight weeks old fetus, the glenoid labrum was a primitivemesenchymal cellular structure. At 16 weeks old fetus, it becamefibrocellular structure. From 23 weeks old fetus, the migration of cartilagetissue from the articular cartilage of glenoid fossa to the glenoid margin ofthe labrum resulted from the beginning of fibrocartilaginous appearance of the glenoid labrum. At full term, the area near to the glenoidmargin was highly cellular, while the area near to the free margin was morefibrous. In this work, although the glenoid labrum was highly vascularizedthroughout the prenatal life, the adult labrum was not vascularized at all. The collagen fibers were detected early in the glenoid labrum with subsequentincrease in their content during the prenatal life and extended to the adultlife. In contrast, the elastic fibers appeared rare in the full term andadult labra