Stanford scientists found a way to regrow cartilage and stop arthritis

[Coventina]

A study led by Stanford Medicine researchers has found that an injection blocking a protein linked to aging can reverse the natural loss of knee cartilage in older mice. The same treatment also stopped arthritis from developing after knee injuries that resemble ACL tears, which are common among athletes and recreational exercisers. Researchers note that an oral version of the treatment is already being tested in clinical trials aimed at treating age-related muscle weakness.

Human cartilage samples taken from knee replacement surgeries also responded positively. These samples included both the supportive extracellular matrix of the joint and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells. When treated, the tissue began forming new, functional cartilage.

Together, the findings suggest that cartilage lost due to aging or arthritis may one day be restored using either a pill or a targeted injection. If successful in people, such treatments could reduce or even eliminate the need for knee and hip replacement surgery.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that affects about one in five adults in the United States and generates an estimated $65 billion each year in direct health care costs. Current treatments focus on managing pain or replacing damaged joints surgically. There are no approved drugs that can slow or reverse the underlying cartilage damage.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260120000333.htm

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Holy fucking shit this is huge!!

[Kid Berwyn]

1. My hands are soooo happy right now.

Thank you for the heads-up, Coventina!

[mcar]

2. I'm seeing a doc about my knee in a few hours

I'll ask him about this study. Thanks.

[chia]

3. Too late for my knees, maybe in time for my hips?

[Traildogbob]

4. Shhhhhsss!

Don’t tell RFK Jr and GQP.
Lots of old guitar players like myself are real happy
Keith Richards and the Stones could go on a dozen more years.

[Dave says]

23. Ditto

Very difficult to continue to play guitar, but I still do. There are many chords I just can't do anymore.

I also hoped to resume painting (oil) and drawing (pastel and pencil), but I can't draw a straight line anymore. This is less than the arthritis and more due to a cancer I have and it's treatment, but the arthritis does not help.

[Traildogbob]

27. So far

The chords are all doable but I know a day may come when the little finger will not stretch. My biggest issue, remembering lyrics. Trying to get a monitor sit up that mounts in the mic stand with scrolling lyrics like Karaoke. Hopefully my damn eyes hold up. 😢
Happy jamming to ya.

[Dave says]

33. And happy jamming to you, too :)

[Picaro]

5. Incredible news

I’m missing a lot of cartilage in my left knee.
Also having some issues with my left hand.

This could be huge. Hope it gets to market quickly.

[Johonny]

6. And backs . . .?

[mopinko]

9. yeah. i have an appt next week

for another lumbar pain shot. the last 2 didnt work. i’m planning to ask about surgery.
this wont b available in time to avoid that, but surgery wd likely lead to the adjacent discs shifting/collapsing. if that cd b avoided, i’m home free. my whole spine is a hot mess.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Where do we get some, who will market it?

[a kennedy]

8. 😢 😢 😢

Damn, why couldn’t this have been found a few years ago??? Both knees, total knee replacements……damn, just damn. Well good for the research to potentially help soooooooooooo many others.

[wiggs]

10. I need that ASAP! nt

[JT45242]

11. Game changer...

Gen Xer ...my wife and I both have damaged knee cartilage from our twenties. This would be huge when scalable.

Assuming insurance and big pharma don't go the ridiculous high price and deny like they did GLP1

[Scrivener7]

12. WOW!

[VTderry]

13. Wonderful news!

Thanks for sharing it!

[Pacifist Patriot]

14. I feel like I've been disintegrated from the inside out. This is encouraging indeed!

[Deep State Witch]

15. Sign Me Up!

My left knee is really feeling it lately. A cortisone shot only lasts about 6 weeks. I want a permanent solution that doesn't require surgery.

[NNadir]

16. The operative word in this report is "mice."

I have spent most of my career in one way or another in drug discovery and development.

I've seen some "breakthroughs" become "breakdowns."

There is a funnel that indicates that only a very small number of discoveries in the preclinical space actually make it to becoming treatments for human disease.

I would love this to pan out as I have an arthritic spine that can be quite painful, but I'll believe it when I see it. As I'm old, understanding the pathway between here and there and the time involved, I don't expect I'll live long enough to try it out in the unlikely event that a human treatment is actually developed and approved.

[ananda]

17. That is good news.

However, I don't have any arthritis at all.

I have taken er4yt arthritis supplements
for the last 27 years; and I've taken
beef gelatin supplements for over ten
years.

I would like to be able to strengthen
muscles better, though I have been
able to strengthen some.

[KS Toronado]

18. $65 billion yearly industry

There will be some wealthy oligarchs planning how to stop it if it hurts their profits.

[NBachers]

19. Gimme a quart, Mort. Gimme a gallon Alan.

[irisblue]

20. I volunteer to be a test subject

[spooky3]

29. I do too! Nt

[popsdenver]

21. Everyone doing cheers.......

in hopes that it could soon be available for them, should recognize the reality of the medical situation we are now in, and the fact that if it continues, it will only get worse in the future.......

By the time it hits the market, it will be soooo prohibitive in price, only the top 1% will be able to afford it, and like so many drugs today, the insurance companies will take their sweet time in approving it.

The Medical Insurance Corporations, Drug Insurance Corporations, and Pharmaceutical Corporations have all been conspiring together for Decades.....

Some one I know is prescribed one of the new miracle cancer drugs.......The pharmaceutical company's LIST price is $ 24,000.
A MONTH FOR 30 PILLS...........That person I know, has the best drug insurance policy available, and her out of pocket cost is "ONLY" $ 2000 a MONTH.

I listen to Trump, and I laugh my ass off when he says he is going to lower drug prices by 100%, 400%, etc. I would bet that his MAGAot Voters are so poorly educated that they mathematically think that those lower drug prices are EVEN possible. I talked to a Trumphumper a couple of days ago, who is waiting for his Rx's to go down in price.......I had to explain to him, that a 100% reduction would mean they were FREE, and 400% means that the Drug company would have to PAY HIM to take the drugs....

I am constantly confronted with how poorly educated even people holding master college degrees are......to me it is not only ludicrous, but un-fathomable........

[highplainsdem]

22. Until this treatment is available, I'd suggest that people use search engines to search for

vitamin C cartilage

and read about research on that.

[joanbarnes]

24. too late for me, about to get my second knee replaced, already had one hip

[BaronChocula]

26. Hope it goes well! n/t

[joanbarnes]

30. Thanks! I wouldn't be doing it except the other two procedures made a HUGE improvement.

[BaronChocula]

25. Somewhere there's a bitter republican (redundant)

decrying funding for scientific experiments on mouse knees.

[Raven123]

28. Wow. Hope the clinical trials prove it works!

[indusurb]

31. My guess is that this treatment won't be affordable for the first ten years after it hits market

And insurance won't cover it
There's a reason it's called the health care industry.

[canetoad]

32. HUGH !!!

Hope it's not too late for my left knee. Thanks for posting.

[BComplex]

34. YAY!!! Knees can make it so that older people can't get around and do for themselves

and that makes all the difference in a life! And in how they (we) could end up burdening our families.

This is huge, and I hope it's legit all the way down the line.