• Sores in the mouth, when applied to the skin as a gel.
• Eye surgery and corneal transplant, when injected by an eye surgeon.

• Osteoarthritis, when injected into the joint by a healthcare provider. Despite being approved by the FDA for treatment of osteoarthritis by injection, results vary. Some people report a moderate improvement in joint stiffness and pain decrease with hyaluronic acid treatment, but this is not always the case. Whether hyaluronic acid might delay or lessen progressive joint damage with long-term use is unknown.

• Healing skin wounds and burns.
• Detached retina and other eye injuries.
• Preventing the effects of aging.

There is also a section for reviews on either taking the supplement orally or getting it injected into one’s joints like knees. Some say it was effective while others say it is not. It is noted that it seems to act as a glucosamine alternative. From its function and what types of illness it treats, it does have similar effects as the glucosamine.

From the Wikipedia article on Hyularonan (aka Hyaluronic Acid)…is an anionic, nonsulfated glycosaminoglycan distributed widely throughout connective,epithelial, and neural tissues. It is unique among glycosaminoglycans in that it is nonsulfated, forms in the plasma membrane instead of the Golgi, and can be very large, with its molecular weight often reaching the millions.^[2] One of the chief components of the extracellular matrix, hyaluronan contributes significantly to cell proliferation and migration, and may also be involved in the progression of some malignant tumors.

Me: I would say that from a first look there is a lot of potential for the supplement. We remember from previous posts that one of the two main components in the matrix of cartilage is preoteoglycans which are just core proteins with different types of glycosaminoglycan attached. In the extra-cellular matrix fluid between cells there really is two main types of compounds, the proteoglycans and the non-proteoglycan stuff. With proteoglycans we have compounds we’ve already looked at before like Chondoitin Sulfate, Heparan Sulfate, and Keratan Sulfate. With the Non-proteoglycans, we have just the glycosaminoglycans without the core proteins like the Hyaluronic acid. The rest of the compondsa are like Collagen and Elastin.

From just a laymen’s point of view of a quick analysis we could see how the idea of hyaluronic acid could work. Since Hyaluronic acid is one of the only glycoasminoglycan which is not attached to anything, and has a charge it can possible readily form with proteins to create proteoglycan. If there is more proteoglycans, it can possibly lead to thicker, healthier cartilage like the articular leading to slight height increase in terms of milimeters.

The part from the wikipedia article which says that “it may be involved in the progression of some malignant tumors” suggest that it can cause cell proliferation at a very higher rate if something happens and we have already see the strong correlation between cancer occurence and being taller.

From the same article in Wikipedia…

Extracellular matrix cells have been found to cause regrowth and healing of tissue. In human fetuses, for example, the extracellular matrix works with stem cells to grow and regrow all parts of the human body, and fetuses can regrow anything that gets damaged in the womb. Scientists have long believed that the matrix stops functioning after full development. It has been used in the past to help horses heal torn ligaments, but it is being researched further as a device for tissue regeneration in humans.^{[citation needed]}

In terms of injury repair and tissue engineering, the extracellular matrix serves two main purposes. First, it prevents the immune system from triggering from the injury and responding with inflammation and scar tissue. Next, it facilitates the surrounding cells to repair the tissue instead of forming scar tissue.^{[citation needed]}

Extracellular matrix proteins are commonly used in cell culture systems to maintain stem and precursor cells in an undifferentiated state during cell culture and function to induce differentiation of epithelial, endothelial and smooth muscle cells in vitro. Extracellular matrix proteins can also be used to support 3D cell culture in vitro for modelling tumor development.^[15

Me: We note that the extra-cellular matrix seems to have tissue healing and regenerating properties. We have seen in many places the supplement Chondroitin being sold as a joint pain reducer and have seen the heparan and Keratan also being used. These both faciiliate and assist tissue repair and formation, as well as even differentiation. We also note that for most supplement stores, the glucosamine is almost always combined with chondroitin as a way to help relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis as well as articular cartilage thickness decreasing. I wrote a past post where we looked a the possibility of taking Glucosamine Sulphate to increase height for adults and we do see one video where a professional body builder/ model claims he grew over 1 inch in height from taking glucosamine sulphate supplements mainly to help his knee joint pain.

Something to remember is that chondoitin sulphate is a sulphated type of glycosaminoglycan while hyaluronic acid is a non-sulphated type of glycosaminoglycan.

We know that chondroitin sulphate is one of the compounds which helps the compression strength of the cartilage. This means that taking chondroitin can help a person prevent some height lose due to the articular cartilage at the ends of long bones lossing their ability and strength to take a compression load. We also know that hyaluronic acid is a major component found in synovial joints. Assuming that the two types of glycosaminoglycan has similar effects, then hyaluronic acid can both help increase the volume of fluid in the synovial joints and also lead to articular cartilage thickening. This means that the overal human height does have a slight chance to increase in height by maybe 1-3 mms.

Further research on Hyaluronic Acid only gets to HeightQuest articles. The articles are entitled “Does Hyaluronic Acid Supplementation work to gain height?” and “Height Gaining with Hyaluronic Acid” and “How to Grow Taller if your Growth Plates are still open“. I haven’t read the articles except skim over them but Tyler’s point for the hyaluronic acid is that they cause chondrogentic differentiation of the MSCs and also chondrocyte proliferation.

{Tyler-Here’s a study that may illuminate hylauronic acid’s possible height increase potential:

Increased cartilage volume after injection of hyaluronic acid in osteoarthritis knee patients who underwent high tibial osteotomy.

“High tibial osteotomy (HTO) is a surgical procedure used to correct abnormal mechanical loading of the knee joint; additionally, intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections have been shown to restore the viscoelastic properties of synovial fluid and balance abnormal biochemical processes. It was hypothesized that combining HTO with intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections would have benefit to improve the cartilage volume of knee joints.
Forty patients with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA) were randomly placed into 1 of 2 groups. The study group (n = 20) received 2 cycles (at 6-month intervals) of 5 weekly intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections after HTO operation. The control group (n = 20) did not receive any intra-articular injections after HTO surgery. Cartilage volume (primary outcome) was assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pre-operatively and 1 year post-operatively. Treatment efficacy (secondary outcomes) was evaluated with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities OA Index (WOMAC) and by the comparison of the total rescue medication (paracetamol/diclofenac) used (weeks 6, 12, 24, 48).
MRI studies showed a significant increase in total cartilage volume (p = 0.033), lateral femoral cartilage volume (p = 0.044) and lateral tibial cartilage volume (p = 0.027) in the study group. Cartilage volume loss was detected at the lateral tibial plateau in the control group. There were significant improvements after surgery in both groups for all subscales of WOMAC scores (p < 0.001) compared to the baseline. However, no difference was found between the two groups. The study group had significantly lower amounts of diclofenac consumption (p = 0.017).
Based on the findings of the present study, intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections may be beneficial for increasing total cartilage volume and preventing the loss of lateral tibiofemoral joint cartilage after HTO.”

Although this study targets people with subnormal cartilage volume in the the knee joint so there’s no guarantee that it will work on people already with normal cartilage levels but increasing cartilage volume could potentially increase height.