There might soon be hope of regrowing knee cartilage within the body, finally
.Millions of people suffer from debilitating damage to their cartilage within the knees and elsewhere. Once it is gone, bones tear against each other, causing enormous pain. Conventional wisdom holds that cartilage cannot be regrown, but there may be hope soon.
15-PGDH is a protein whose concentration increases with age. It has been found to prevent cartilage regeneration. Once the inhibitor of this molecule is injected at the site of injury or elsewhere, the cartilage regenerates.
The effect is quite dramatic and unexpected. So far, it has been tested in living mice and in cartilage samples from people who underwent knee or hip replacement surgery. In both cases, cartilage regrew, offering hope to sufferers from this debilitating condition.
15-PGDH inhibitor seems to help also people who experienced traumatic cartilage damage that can happen during sports. This means that, even though this molecule is associated with aging, inhibiting it in younger persons can also have a dramatic effect on cartilage regeneration.
A 15-PGDH inhibitor is already in phase 1 clinical trials to improve muscle weakness, and so far, it has shown promising results. This means the road to using it for cartilage regeneration is a bit shorter than if it were an entirely new idea.
The question was: Can the knee cartilage be regrown?
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