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 :)

[2naSalit]

38. A friend of mine uses...

His phone for lyrics, writes most of his own stuff, and uses one of those clamp/mount things like you use in the car.

[Traildogbob]

44. Great advice.

I met an artist when playing a show this last fall that uses an IPad mounted to mic stand and the APP for Ultimate Guitar that offers all kinds of lyrics, chords and even over dubs. You can program it to d roll lyrics with all kinds of xtras.
I got a new IPad, I just need the mount it to the stand and to purchase the premium APP for UG.
I need to hurry up, cause all the OLDER age is creeping up. Just a little hesitant to commit to another APP and charge until I start giving again.
Times a wasting. Wish we had all this tech when learning decades ago!!!
Now I have a Lyrics notebook, 90+ hand written lyrics and chords, that no way I can read in a show setting!!!
Lost my printer options with ability to blow up Font from the document I would type out the lyrics onto WORD, in the department office at retirement. 🙁
Cheers to you, keep those little fingers, number 5. lose and moveable.

[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.

[2naSalit]

39. I'm not getting...

Any kind of treatments but my spine is disintegrating, if there was some kind of reversal or abating of the damage, I'd love to try it. Eventually I could become quadriplegic.

Hope you're staying warm!

[mopinko]

45. ugh. barely.

i have a big place w radiator heat that has been mucked w over the years. totally out of balance. the room where i spend most of my time has cheesy lil baseboards that plug up. 🙁 when it gets in the single digits, it’s time to layer up.
had to have a leaky valve replaced on monday, which meant draining and stirring up the muck. spent 3 days draining, refilling, bleeding, restarting, up and down 2 flights of steps over and over and over. didnt get it perfect, but not freezing. coulda called the plumber back, but i gave him enough of my money for now.
then, to top it off, i tried to walk w a sound asleep foot this a.m. didnt take a spill but did pull a muscle. sitting here w it elevated and iced.

got an excuse to sit on my butt, w a quilt and a chubby, cuddly dog all day, tho. not a total loss.

it’s so frustrating to know there’s something in the pipeline, but maybe not in time for u. used to b a hospice volunteer. saddest thing i ever did was visit a family in a ronald mcdonald house, where they were doing their last hail mary. miracles all around them, but not for them.

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻for us both.

[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.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

35. I hope

This can be used to regrow the cartilage discs in degenerative disc disease in the spine . My spine will be like what accident?

[nuxvomica]

36. The ripple effect of this would be huge

Many chronic conditions can follow the onset of reduced mobility, including cardio issues and type 2 diabetes, as well as psychological issues.

[Aristus]

37. A boon to both patients and medical providers.

Ask any medical provider which is the most frustrating chronic condition to treat, they will probably say "chronic musculoskeletal pain." We don't want our patients to be in pain. But the medications than can ease the pain the fastest and most effectively, opioids, are absolutely the worst medications for long-term treatment of chronic pain, due to risks of addiction and tolerance, respiratory depression, and constipation with risk of bowel rupture.

Something like this could help ease (or end; who knows?) the opioid epidemic.

[Rebl2]

40. Wonder if

it can be used in the back or is it only joints.

[Iggo]

41. Does it work on ear cartilage?

Asking for the Orange menace, who would love to have a cover story.

[3catwoman3]

42. Next on the Trump/HHS hit list will be Stanford because it is in a blue state.

I spent most of my about-to-be 75 years on this planet not being a cynic. the 2016 election changed that. The 2024 election made it worse.

[Emile]

43. How many years away until it will be avaliable?