Enthesis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The enthesis (plural entheses) is the connective tissue between tendon or ligament and bone.[1]
There are two types of entheses: Fibrous entheses and fibrocartilaginous entheses.[2][3]
In a fibrous enthesis, the collagenous tendon or ligament directly attaches to the bone.
In a fibrocartilaginous enthesis, the interface presents a gradient that crosses four transition zones:[4]
- Tendinous area displaying longitudinally oriented fibroblasts and a parallel arrangement of collagen fibres
- Fibrocartilaginous region of variable thickness where the structure of the cells changes to chondrocytes
- Abrupt transition from cartilaginous to calcified fibrocartilage—often called 'tidemark' or 'blue line'
- Bone