alt.hn

1/21/2026 at 6:05:36 PM

Scientists find a way to regrow cartilage in mice and human tissue samples

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

by saikatsg

1/21/2026 at 10:16:50 PM

With all the mouse research, a lab should compile the top 300 interventions, lifestyles, regimens, etc, and apply it to a generation of mice. Give them all the best of the best gene edits, diets, environments, drug regimens, therapies, exercise, enrichment, and everything else. Get one or two broods of pups each year and breed them for healthspan and well-being, and each year, incorporate the latest and greatest research. Any time they need treatment, or surgery, select from the latest best research for that specific illness or injury.

We have decades of superb mouse health optimization research, it should be applied.

by observationist

1/22/2026 at 12:45:11 AM

The Interventions Testing Program is the closest thing I know of along these lines.

“ The Interventions Testing Program (ITP) is a peer-reviewed program designed to identify agents that extend lifespan and healthspan in mice. Investigators at any university, institute, company, or other organization are invited to recommend interventions for testing by submitting an application before the February deadline each year. Testing is carried out in the genetically heterogeneous UM-HET3 mouse stock at three sites — the Jackson Laboratory, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.”

https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/dab/interventions-testing-p...

by directevolve

1/22/2026 at 5:39:01 PM

2077 News flash: Immortal mice escaped from lab, became dominant species in a few months. Containment efforts ongoing.

by ASalazarMX

1/21/2026 at 10:29:04 PM

paging Bryan Johnson

by justinator

1/22/2026 at 2:13:37 AM

Cave Johnson too.

by overfeed

1/22/2026 at 12:51:30 AM

Is this a joke

by tantalor

1/22/2026 at 11:09:59 AM

HN has needed an (in mice) rule forever, they are obsessed with mice to their own detriment

by monster_truck

1/22/2026 at 9:00:59 PM

"Overall, mice and humans share virtually the same set of genes. Almost every gene found in one species so far has been found in a closely related form in the other. Of the approximately 4,000 genes that have been studied, less than 10 are found in one species but not in the other." https://www.genome.gov/10001345/importance-of-mouse-genome

by helph67

1/22/2026 at 2:03:30 AM

Do übermice sound like a joke to you?

by anonymous908213

1/21/2026 at 6:37:19 PM

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx6649

A small molecule inhibitor of 15-hydroxy prostaglandin dehydrogenase causes cartilage regeneration. I hope they fast-track it to human trials.

by tima101

1/21/2026 at 6:42:36 PM

"Phase 1 clinical trials of a 15-PGDH inhibitor for muscle weakness have shown that it is safe and active in healthy volunteers. Our hope is that a similar trial will be launched soon to test its effect in cartilage regeneration" - Helen Blau, Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology & the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professorship

by fraserharris

1/21/2026 at 7:05:11 PM

ERa activation promotes PGE2 resulting in decreased 15-PGDH.

So this is one of those standard poor estrogen signaling downstream things and simply improving the estrogen signaling and you get improved cartilage. Anyone can do this today along with getting all of the other positive effects. Those with EDS who have say variants on their TNXA/B have poor production ability to start and so we do everything we can to improve their cartilage production as they can only make so much which include doing stuff like this.

by mobilejdral

1/21/2026 at 8:16:00 PM

> Anyone can do this today

Please explain

by amluto

1/21/2026 at 11:45:33 PM

It depends on the person and their genetics. The further you get from the ERa the more complicated this gets and simply stating "Do X" wouldn't apply to everyone even if there are some incredibly common things to do. I might know all the upstream genes, their interactions, and symptoms by heart so it is pretty easy to identify, but general advice would go something like: eat well, get sleep and exercise.

by mobilejdral

1/22/2026 at 1:18:56 AM

I've read that specific type of exercise (repeating cycles of low impact move, cycling, rowing, elliptical machine) are the most effective at triggering cartilage growth. Is that accurate?

by esperent

1/22/2026 at 2:47:37 PM

never heard of that, sounds wild. Any source for this?

by oarfish

1/21/2026 at 9:18:36 PM

Yes, I deff want this explained, since I'm missing about half of my meniscus.

by RealityVoid

1/22/2026 at 2:19:58 AM

[flagged]

by betty_staples

1/21/2026 at 8:10:12 PM

EDS and arthritis go together so I wonder if we could see secondary effects on other EDS symptoms like subluxation or GI issues?

by shermantanktop

1/21/2026 at 9:36:06 PM

They already have a human trial in progress...

It is being trialed to prevent muscle weakness and some of those patients will have arthritis and they can be assessed for statistical improvement.

Same thing happened with GLP1

by robocat

1/21/2026 at 11:27:40 PM

It looks like this enzyme uses NAD+ as a substrate?

by JumpCrisscross

1/22/2026 at 2:56:16 AM

Because paywall I'm unable to open the paper, but do they ever specify the structure of the small molecule itself? In the associated non-paper materials (news pieces etc.) isn't identified beyond the name they gave it, PGDHi.

Getting vibes like a compsci paper that describes all about what an algo does but hides the sourcecode itself.

by ricksunny

1/22/2026 at 4:37:47 PM

the small molecule is SW033291, papers are required to publish this specific detail but second order news sources tend to avoid the technical details.

by stanford_labrat

1/21/2026 at 7:45:42 PM

I’ve had my shoulders “cleaned up” arthroscopically, and the pain is still a major preventer of movement. I would love to stay on the mats longer with something that doesn’t harken to medieval times. So excited at this prospect.

by levl289

1/21/2026 at 8:36:47 PM

It does get better with physio and exercise. Took me twenty years to recover full (100%) pain-free mobility. It still occasionally finds itself in an uncomfortable spot that can be self-freed, but it can now hold muscle tone across the fascia.

by glitchc

1/21/2026 at 8:23:13 PM

Years and years away unfortunately. Many trials and chances for failure on the human side.

It's discouraging to see these on HN and then realize that most never go anywhere, or are so far out you may not see it in your lifetime.

Maybe we should flag anything not already in a phase 3 trial :)

by chkaloon

1/21/2026 at 8:24:27 PM

Well, the article notes that it seemed effective on human tissue samples.

   The researchers also tested cartilage taken from patients undergoing total knee replacement for osteoarthritis. After one week of treatment with the 15-PGDH inhibitor, the tissue showed fewer 15-PGDH-producing chondrocytes, reduced expression of cartilage degradation and fibrocartilage genes, and early signs of articular cartilage regeneration.
So, IMO that shows hope for once it goes to trials.

by capitainenemo

1/21/2026 at 6:23:30 PM

Of course, why are the good ones always in mice?

  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.

by blakesterz

1/21/2026 at 6:33:33 PM

I guess we should pay scientist to look into the human-to-mice transformation problem

by agumonkey

1/27/2026 at 2:22:05 PM

I would love that, as long as the lifespan didn't change. If everyone turned into mice we'd have a lot more space for other stuff, we'd need less food, less resources in general, since we'd be physically smaller, this thought is one of the reasons I like the movie arthur and the minimoys, where the main character gets shrunk to like 2mm in size!

by LoveMortuus

1/21/2026 at 6:54:50 PM

This :))) or the other way around

by random3

1/21/2026 at 8:19:53 PM

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

by IAmBroom

1/22/2026 at 7:09:23 AM

* John Oliver has entered the room

by rgun

1/21/2026 at 6:43:29 PM

It's all that wheel running, terrible on the knees.

by trebligdivad

1/21/2026 at 6:51:04 PM

If only a small percentage of studies make it past the mice stage to be tested on humans, it means that a lot more studies have been done on mice than humans. Hence, we know more about mouse biology than human biology. So over time, it must get easier and easier to generate positive results in mice, which are uncorrelated with the success in humans.

by abdullahkhalids

1/21/2026 at 7:12:05 PM

It's worse than that. People get to interfere in mice. You can stunt their growth, give them transparent skin, grow more or less limbs, cut into them ... you can't experiment at all on humans.

Especially when it comes to pregnancies we know more about a lot of animals than about humans. Why? Well pregnancies is how you multiply meat in animals, which is what farmers are interested in (and pay for). Which ironically also means animal pregnancies can be treated in case of trouble much more effectively.

Why pregnancies? Pregnancy changes a LOT of chemical processes in the body and so quite a bit of "normal" medical knowledge doesn't apply to pregnant women. Which has caused the medical establishment to declare anything that isn't explicitly tested on pregnant women as a no-go zone. So even problems and medications that we do know about, doctors won't apply them to pregnant women.

by spwa4

1/21/2026 at 8:10:11 PM

Yes there are metabolic changes in the mother herself during pregnancy but that's not why it's hard to research. The main fear is that drugs will cross the placenta and affect the growing fetus, or similarly be transmitted through breast milk to an infant. Very young humans are uniquely vulnerable to disruption in their growth that can cause life-long problems.

by tominous

1/21/2026 at 6:47:25 PM

Douglas Adams continues to be ahead of his time.

by irishcoffee

1/22/2026 at 2:44:04 AM

Mice have the best medical care. Maybe Douglas Adams was right.

On a serious note, it seems like a whole lot of drugs work great on mice and not so much on people.

by laughing_man

1/22/2026 at 4:46:25 AM

I imagine because mice dont misbehave, lie about taking the drugs, get enough sleep, eat consistently and dont have to take other drugs masking complex interactions.

by worthless-trash

1/21/2026 at 8:17:14 PM

It's because Mickey Mouse has enough money to fund a lot of medical research, and he's not stingy.

by AnimalMuppet

1/21/2026 at 6:43:16 PM

We live in the Matrix, and Mice are the overlords.

by seydor

1/21/2026 at 8:22:21 PM

"A chemical is something that causes cancer in lab mice."

By analogy, "A drug is something that cures cancer in lab mice."

by IAmBroom

1/21/2026 at 7:33:40 PM

Would this work for rheumatoid arthritis? I don’t know anything about it myself so it could be a completely different thing, but someone I know has it and it is awful. Would be great to see a treatment coming through.

by clickety_clack

1/21/2026 at 10:01:09 PM

ra is autoimmune

by 331c8c71

1/21/2026 at 8:07:20 PM

HN posts about mouse studies always trigger a bunch of skepticism. I’m a layperson so it’s hard to separate the informed comments from me-too contrarians.

Are there areas of medicine where mouse models have a much higher or lower success rate in human trials?

by shermantanktop

1/21/2026 at 8:28:02 PM

There's two issues, success rate (about 5%) and time ... even if it is successful in humans, it will be 5 to 10 years before it's available (and 20-30 before it's affordable)

This is not being a contrarian, but a realist.

by okaram

1/21/2026 at 9:04:27 PM

To be fair, this same realist perspective seems to suggest humans would not have been capable of developing a COVID vaccine for 5 to 10 years; yet, they identified the virus and authorized vaccine use within eight months.

by d3rockk

1/21/2026 at 9:10:54 PM

Not to diminish the accomplishment of rolling out the Covid vaccine in such a rapid timeframe, but… there was something like 40+ years of research into creating mRNA vaccines that laid the ground work.

by mrexroad

1/21/2026 at 9:28:49 PM

> and 20-30 before it's affordable

Not if pharma execs and shareholders have anything to say about that

by darth_avocado

1/21/2026 at 9:55:46 PM

It has also been tested in cartilage samples from knee replacement surgeries.

by samus

1/21/2026 at 6:46:14 PM

basically every growth process in the body can be induced by chemicals. and so now people are starting to take some of these chemicals. we will see how it turns out

by llmslave

1/21/2026 at 7:36:10 PM

My dream is to be able to run again. Please. Let me run a 10k at least once more in my life. To feel that stillness and freedom and calm that sets in when the brain start going to hibernation after about 7km.

That would be quiet something to feel that again.

by surfsvammel

1/21/2026 at 11:11:35 PM

I broke my ankle nearly two years ago. I've had three surgeries already and will be getting a total ankle replacement in about a month. Even with that, I will never run again.

Sometimes in a dream, I'll start running. I'll notice how magically effortless it feels. How wonderful to be able to run again. Then a little voice in the back of my head reminds me that this can't be real. It wakes me up every time.

It was a rough day when I opened Strava to log one of my physical therapy walks and realized that if I scroll down a bit, I can find a record of the longest run I will ever do.

I'm mostly at peace with it now. I'm grateful that at least I was into running for a while before I lost it, so at least I don't regret never having done it. And I never really enjoyed it then anyway. I just did it for health reasons and the sense of accomplishment.

I'm sorry for your suffering. I know what this longing feels like.

by munificent

1/22/2026 at 12:47:55 AM

Godamn that sucks :(. What did you do to it?

It really sucks when you break something and realise it might not ever go back to how it was before you break it (whether in how it feels or functions). I always had broken bones in my head as this thing that heal after a couple months and you're back to 100% :/ (also broke my ankle)

by Panzer04

1/22/2026 at 6:27:52 PM

I was trying to be healthier, so I started biking to work. I was worried about safety, so I only felt comfortable doing this because my commute was 90% on bike paths.

Then I slipped on a puddle and landed really wrong on my left ankle. :(

I don't know if I stuck my foot out and foot planted or the bike landed on it or what, but the end result was a tri-malleolar fracture with dislocation. Basically I tried to twist my foot off and broken the tips off my tibia and fibula in the process. I had a bunch of other complications after that: severe fracture blisters, nerve block rebound pain, infection, problems with wound healing, and then finally the cartilage crapped out and I got post-traumatic osteoarthritis.

> I always had broken bones in my head as this thing that heal after a couple months and you're back to 100% :/ (also broke my ankle)

Me too! This was my first broken bone. I thought I'd just go to the hospital, they'd patch me up, and I'd go on with my life. But then every appointment with the surgeon, the prognosis got worse and worse.

With the replacement, if everything goes well, then I should at least be able to walk, and hike, and dance without pain. But nothing high impact or putting a lot of torque on the ankle. No running, no intense sports. The door to that part of my life has closed.

by munificent

1/22/2026 at 10:42:29 PM

Man, that bull** :'(. I had a Bimal syndesmosis, so not as bad as you (and many fewer complications..) - I was riding an electric unicycle off-road on MTB trails, which sounds a lot dumber than what you were doing XD. Even so, it still bothers me over a year later.

I feel like it's worse with an ankle because if you don't break it they basically don't get arthritis, unlike a knee or hip; so you've lost more when you get ankle PTOA :'(.

I hope your TAR serves you well - they definitely sound like they've been getting better, so hopefully you get a good long while out of it.

by Panzer04

1/22/2026 at 11:26:20 PM

Tearing the syndemosis sounds rough!

Coincidentally, right around a same time, a friend of mine wiped out on his OneWheel and had a compound ankle fracture with dislocation. I don't recall how many malleoluses he broke, but it was pretty gnarly. But he's been healing well and it seems like his cartilage might survive OK. I'm happy for him but also envious.

> I feel like it's worse with an ankle because if you don't break it they basically don't get arthritis

It's crazy how well an ankle performs when you think about it. It is so much smaller than your hip or knee, and it takes even more impact force than those joints do when you run, and often while at weird angles. It's a miracle they work at all.

> they definitely sound like they've been getting better,

That's what I hear. If this had happened a decade ago, I'd probably getting a fusion now. Good luck on your recovery too.

by munificent

1/21/2026 at 7:50:15 PM

Hope you see your dream realized. But know that that stillness is achievable through other activities as well. Most directly and deeply, through a meditation practice which is geared towards reaching those deep meditation states (called Jhanas in the Pali canon). My favorite guide on that particular path is Leigh Brasington.

by pegasus

1/21/2026 at 8:06:37 PM

Can you swim? This is the only thing besides running that gets me there.

by steve_adams_86

1/21/2026 at 8:13:02 PM

A Concept 2 rowing machine can also do this (in my experience). No impact, similar to swimming.

by cromulent

1/22/2026 at 12:30:33 AM

Check the ElliptiGo. It gives you a similar feeling without the impact on the knees or hip. I know someone who was an avid long life runner. He substituted running for using the ElliptiGo for years and seemed very happy with it. Surprisingly, he was able to run again. I also have the ElliptiGo, but I don't have knee problems, I started using it because at one time I was having neck pain and couldn't run, bike or swim.

by MyHonestOpinon

1/22/2026 at 11:47:13 AM

What does it feel like to ride on of those? Versus like a bicycle?

by user____name

1/26/2026 at 9:35:53 PM

Hard to describe. It is fun, like running on something soft. Whenever I am lazy and stop riding mine for a few months and I get back I am baffled on why I stopped.

by MyHonestOpinon

1/22/2026 at 1:34:07 AM

I'm in a similar situation. In my case, I can't walk pain-free anymore with or without insoles. Operations are possible but again, not a good solution, just lots of metallic rods in affected areas, weeks to months of heeling, no work, not a permanent fix, more like getting a root canal, and getting a crown. I'm hopeful something meaningful, affordable comes out of all the research is being done.

by SilentM68

1/21/2026 at 7:25:45 PM

Fusion Power

Cartilage Regrowth

Room Temperature Semiconductors

Quantum Computing

    def generate(topic, year):
       return f"Scientists have made a major breakthrough in {topic}"
The only subjects that are more Year Of The Linux Desktop than Linux itself.

by arjie

1/21/2026 at 7:59:03 PM

I’m familiar with Helen Blau, her team is into everything: telomeres and aging, reversing cardiomyopathy, HIV, that team is really hardcore into prolonging and improving lives and wellness.

Heard.

But if even one of their interests panned out it would be paradigm changing for millions and they’re doing it to save your lives not get a updoot on hacker news. They’re all pretty anonymous and understated Imo but i am a great fan and i would love for it to be the “year of” anything they’re studying. I listed a few and I’m sure there’s dozens I’m unaware of.

I’ve been thinking that this stuff is all more closely related than we think and that as they go down one of these paths they’re finding all this other stuff along the way, it’s genuinely fascinating.

Heart disease and failure is one of the biggest ways we meet our ends right now. There’s so much interplay between aging processes, ceasing t-cell production, shortening telomeres , that ties in together with this and im glad they see a bigger picture than me having another 20 years , too winded to stand up and piss or strapped to a bed hooked to tubes and groaning!

by razingeden

1/21/2026 at 9:40:26 PM

Survivor bias of those things that haven't been solved.

Notably absent:

The fat pill HIV fix Cystic fibrosis

We make fun of the stuff that hasn't been solved yet ("It's always ten years away!") while ignoring the things that were previously always ten years away until scientists cracked it.

by mediaman

1/21/2026 at 10:26:59 PM

Also AMT-130 for Huntington's disease.

by akoboldfrying

1/21/2026 at 8:04:39 PM

>Year Of The Linux Desktop

After Win11 Microsoft really did all they could to get us there this year.

by carlmr

1/21/2026 at 8:30:03 PM

I think 'room temperature semiconductors' have been around for a while.

by ss2003

1/21/2026 at 9:37:27 PM

Not if Intel has anything to say about it!

by Night_Thastus

1/22/2026 at 7:55:05 AM

SUPER conductors hahaha!

by arjie

1/21/2026 at 8:09:21 PM

I feel it's unfair to ding Linux on this, even with the implied "slightly less".

I've had Windows as my main personal computer for practically forever, because of games. Before that it was DOS. That changed a couple months ago.

Literally just now--in preparation for this comment--I decided to try something I never tried before: I mounted my Win10 drive, picked an arbitrary old Windows game EXE (2006 "Prey" game demo), and launched it as a "non-Steam game" with just one little drop-down menu tweak... and it launched! I may get 10 FPS instead of 200, but that's more than I expected off the bat.

In the the "years of the Linux desktop" of my youth, I wasn't nearly as optimistic. In terms of more-recent games, I have little reason to keep my old drive for dual-boot purposes except for specific games that go out of their way to interfere with clumsy anti-cheat rootkits.

by Terr_

1/21/2026 at 7:41:09 PM

Don't forget about Alzheimer's disease

by bramhaag

1/21/2026 at 9:59:43 PM

Back on /. (way back when!) I read an article about optic nerve regrowth in mice. IIRC a lattice was built, stem cells shot onto it, and some other stuff was done, and a new optic nerve ended up growing.

It involved removing the poor mouses existing eye, so there was no net gain (still had a mouse with only 1 working eye), but I was hopeful progress would be made so I could get myself a working optic nerve.

Nope. No progress in 20+ years. Someone got a paper published and went on and did something else.

It is a relatively uncommon problem, for ~98% of children with a problem with their optic nerve, patching the opposite eye works to force the optic nerve to grow. I'm in the (un)lucky 2%!

Admittedly not the worst rare health problem to have.

by com2kid

1/21/2026 at 7:39:58 PM

Battery tech

by legohead

1/21/2026 at 7:48:47 PM

Blockchain & DeFi!

Bingo!

:-D

by KellyCriterion

1/22/2026 at 12:01:13 AM

Is this available for dogs? I have an aging pup who has early arthritis and I'm considering NAD+ precursor supplements, but this seems much more promising.

by radicaldreamer

1/22/2026 at 12:49:13 AM

I had microfracture knee surgery. My knee still doesn't feel 100%, and I would love to remain active and keep running. Today, I can do daily work activities, but some physical activities, like running, are painful. I hope this can become a viable solution for humans one day. It would remarkably improve my life.

by cebert

1/21/2026 at 7:30:32 PM

The discovery of gerozymes is interesting. Maybe aging is pre-programmed after all, to make space for new generations.

by inglor_cz

1/22/2026 at 5:43:15 AM

Human testing should be legal. There'll be stuff like trafficking but that's already happening. Go direct or whatever Lulu said.

by muragekibicho

1/21/2026 at 6:49:21 PM

As long as regrowth can be controlled. Otherwise we call it cancer. Would be amazing to get a treatment for osteoarthritis.

by jleyank

1/21/2026 at 7:31:34 PM

I had good results with hyaluronic acid for knee osteoarthritis. Sometimes they sell it as Type II Collagen. "Source Naturals Hyaluronic Joint Complex" was the best for my relatives/friends' knee problems. I take it a few times a month (with resveratrol) for smooth skin. I have been taking it since 2008 without any negative result.

by da02

1/21/2026 at 8:23:21 PM

How does Type II Collagen work for patella tendonitis? I have jumpers knee (chronic) and would love to find something that helps -- even a little.

by kenjackson

1/21/2026 at 8:42:42 PM

Seems like it should work. I do not have experience with that condition. A quick search online (patella tendonitis hyaluronic acid) yielded this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22526713/

So they are using hyaluronic acid injections for patella tendonitis. Taking hyaluronic acid orally would probably take longer for effects compared to injections. Most people would prefer the injections because they feel safer for a doctor to do all the work. I prefer the tablets. If you have the money, I guess go for the injections. I would use the H.A. tablets. (With a tall glass of water, and do not take at the same time as blood-thinning medication, like pain killers or drugs.)

by da02

1/21/2026 at 6:55:54 PM

You should check out Michael Levin. Cancerous cells do not grow organ-like structures. Normal cells communicate with other cells as a network to control growth.

by deburo

1/22/2026 at 1:27:45 AM

Ok, this sounds promising. Looking forward to when human trials start :)

by SilentM68

1/27/2026 at 8:00:32 AM

My god how do I volunteer?

by CromDonkey

1/26/2026 at 7:29:29 AM

Finally we can move the "enlarge your p*nis" emails from the Spam to the Inbox folder.

by hulitu

1/21/2026 at 8:29:45 PM

>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.

Once again, not in humans, in mice. We don't know if the same result happens in humans. At all. We need to proceed to clinical trials to determine if a result is indeed positive.

by 1970-01-01

1/21/2026 at 10:00:12 PM

No, it's in humans. It's literally the first sentence in your quote.

by samus

1/21/2026 at 10:05:51 PM

Ok, we've inmiced the title above. Thanks!

by dang