Orthopedic surgeon here. Articular cartilage regeneration is definitely the holy grail of my field, but for all of the promises of biologics (growth factors, stem cells, collagen matrices) it always seems to be “another five years away”.

The part of this article that I find most interesting was identifying a marker that can differentiate ankle cartilage vs the hip. This is certainly a phenomenon that we all observe clinically, hip and knee arthritis is vastly more common than ankle arthritis despite the weight bearing surface of the ankle being significantly smaller (meaning more force per square area). When we do encounter ankle arthritis, it is almost always the result of prior intra-articular fractures or instability from chronic ligamenous injuries, not the normal osteoarthritic age related degeneration we see in hips and knees.

Let’s find out what makes ankle articular cartilage so special and sprinkle it in our hips and knees.