Necrosis and apoptosis have been demonstrated in articular cartilage in response to trauma and disease. However, cell death in articular cartilage may also be thought of as a scale of cell death culminating in secondary necrosis with the failure to remove apoptotic cells from the tissue. The in situ detection of cell death is an important technique in studying articular cartilage as it most closely resembles the in vivo situation. The methods described here involve the use of light microscopy and electron microscopy in conjunction with fluorescent and biochemical methods to correctly ascertain the type of cell death that has occurred.