In healthy people, chondrocytes maintain a delicate balance between breaking down old cartilage—called catabolic activity, and producing new cartilage—called anabolic activity, through the use of both degradative enzymes and synthetic enzymes.

在健康的机体内，软骨细胞在分解老化的软骨（分解作用）和产生新的软骨（合成作用）之间通过分解酶和合成酶来保持精细平衡。