Lizards’ ability to regenerate cartilage could lead to new treatments for osteoarthritis

A team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC have published the first detailed description of the interplay between two cell types that allow lizards to regenerate their tails. This research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published on August 10 in Nature Communications, focused on lizards’ unusual ability to rebuild cartilage, which replaces bone as the main structural tissue in regenerated tails after tail loss.

The discovery could provide insight for researchers studying how to rebuild cartilage damaged by osteoarthritis in humans, a…