Humans are just not as good at some things as other beast – take , for object lesson , limb regeneration . Salamanders are masters of regrowth , growing entire limbs and even parts of theirorganswith comparative relaxation . Now it seems , we have a subtle ' inner salamander ’ capacity , as the generator call it , to renovate cartilage .
The Duke University squad detect that the process for cartilage repair is similar to that used by salamander and zebrafish to regrow damage or missing limbs . Interestingly , they found that cartilage is oldest in the hips of humans , young in the ankles , and midway - aged in the knees .
" We were very surprised to incur that the repair capability was different in different joints , " elderly writer Virginia Byers Kraus , a prof at Duke University Medical School , told IFLScience . " The traditional opinion has been that cartilage lining the joints throughout the body is all the same . In fact , even though all cartilages share some protein , each joint has its particular set of gristle protein . On top of this , as shown in our study , now we understand that even the repair capability differs in different joints . "
The age of gristle in different regions of the soundbox parallels that of regenerative animate being , whose regrowth capacity tends to be gamey at the tips of their body , such as their pegleg or tails . The cartilage age may also facilitate excuse why hips take longer to recover than ankles and often train arthritis .
bring out inScience Advances , the team study the molecular clock of amino acids to determine the age of protein . Young protein have no amino acid conversion whereas older protein have many . They then used mass spectrometry to forecast protein upset and tissue mend .
" The fact that old protein sort gather in the hips , but that ' middle - aged ’ proteins predominated in the human knee , and ‘ untried ’ proteins in ankles recount us that the turnover of cartilage protein is low in the hip , moderate in knees and in high spirits in mortise joint , " say Kraus . " High protein employee turnover , as in the articulatio talocruralis stick , is a sign of a strong tissue repair reception . "
Alisa Weigandt for Duke Health
MicroRNA was find to regulate the repair of cartilage – again standardised to salamanders and lizards . Activity of MicroRNA was highest in the ankles compare to the hip and knees .
" We were excited to learn that the governor of regeneration in the salamander limb appear to also be the accountant of joint tissue repair in the human limb , " lead author Ming - Feng Hsuehsaid . " We call it our ' internal stove poker ' mental ability . "
The team go for such knowledge of our inner biological science could one day lessen or prevent arthritis . They are a long way away from puddle such claims now , but the study cater tantalizing possibilities for the futurity .
" We suggest that injection of regenerative miRNA into joint might be used in future to boost the innate repair capacity of the human junction to the level necessary to prevent osteoarthritis , for instance after a joint harm , or slow up or reverse osteoarthritis once it has started , " say Kraus .
" Osteoarthritis is a serious disease and the most uncouth arthritis worldwide . Currently the only drug treatments relieve annoyance , not the disease process itself . There is a very neat motive for strategies to forestall , obtuse and reverse the process . These insights provide many avenues for further enquiry in the quest for remedy for this serious status . "
