Sixth costal cartilage at a glance
- Also called
- Costal cartilage 6
- What it is
- The bar of hyaline cartilage that connects the sixth rib to the sternum.
- Location
- Extends forward from the front end of rib 6. Joins the body of the sternum directly.
- Function
- Gives the rib cage elasticity, allowing the chest wall to expand during breathing.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA8221 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The internal thoracic artery divides into the musculophrenic and superior epigastric arteries behind the sixth intercostal space, just below this cartilage.
- It joins the lower part of the body of the sternum, between the fifth and seventh cartilages.
Structures next to the sixth costal cartilage
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Seventh costal cartilage · skeletal
- Fifth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Anterior papillary muscle of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Transversus thoracis · muscular
- Xiphoid process · skeletal
- Hepatovenous segment II · digestive
- Fourth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Middle hepatic vein · cardiovascular
- Hepatovenous segment III · digestive
- Posterior interventricular branch of coronary artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Sixth costal cartilage (FMA8221). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.