Lengthening your Body with a Hyperbaric Chamber?

Request for help:  Does anyone know of any athletes who regularly use hyperbaric chambers so we can study changes in their bone phenotype?
 
The hyperbaric chamber makes you breathe solely oxygen and increases the atmospheric pressure surrounding you.  Now cartilage is an avascular tissue but can hyperbaric chamber treatment increase chondroinduction or increase the growth from growth plates?

Many athletes use hyperbaric chambers so if hyperbaric chambers could chondroinduce on their own there would be some sort of anecdotal evidence.

Hyperbaric chambers may be an interesting possible way to enhance growth but are too cost prohibitive.

The effect of hyperbaric oxygen and air on cartilage tissue engineering.

"Under hyperbaric oxygen and air stimulation, the cell number of chondrocytes in cartilage matrix was not significantly increased, but the glycosaminoglycans syntheses markedly increased compared to the control group.  The chondrogenic-specific gene expression of SOX9, aggrecan, and COL2A1 were compared respectively. Within the limitation of this study, it was concluded that 2.5 atmosphere absolute oxygen and air may provide a stress environment to help cartilage tissue engineering development."

"In approximately 2.5 ATA[absolute atmosphere] HBO–treated group, the SOX9 and aggrecan expressed significantly at days 9 and 12, but there was no increase with the type I collagen–related gene COL1A2. Alternately, in 2.5 ATA hyperbaric air–treated group, the SOX9 increased with the time and type II collagen–related gene COL2A1 showed significant over expression at days 6, 9, and 15, with no manifest increase with the COL1A2 "

Since hyperbaric chambers go to 2-3 times normal pressure maybe this would would be sufficient.

"Fifteen hASCs contained biocomposites and were equally separated into 3 groups and subsequently treated with 1 ATA air (as control), 2.5 ATA HBO, and 2.5 ATA hyperbaric air operations which were performed in a hyperbaric chamber (MEDITT, Republic of China). The duration of treatment was 1 hour a day for 5 days, and samples were observed at days 6, 9, 12, and 15, respectively, after induction."

Equine peripheral blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells: isolation, identification, trilineage differentiation and effect of hyperbaric oxygen treatment. states that hyperbaric oxygen increased the concentration of mesenchymal stem cells.  Mesenchymal condensation is an important part of new growth plate formation.  Increased MSC concentration would facilitate mesenchymal condensation.

Osteodistraction of a previously irradiated mandible with or without adjunctive hyperbaric oxygenation: an experimental study in rabbits. states that mandibular osteodistraction resulted in cartilagenous tissue in all the experimented groups.  Only irradiation increased the size of chondroid islands and not hyperbaric oxygen.

According to Hyperbaric oxygen-stimulated proliferation and growth of osteoblasts may be mediated through the FGF-2/MEK/ERK 1/2/NF-κB and PKC/JNK pathways., stimulates the growth and proliferation of osteoblasts but can that apply to chondrocytes or stem cells?

Age-dependent response of murine female bone marrow cells to hyperbaric oxygen.

"We treated 2- and 18-month old C57BL/6 female mice by HBO[Hyperbaric Oxygen]. Hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors, enumerated as colony-forming units in culture, were doubled only in peripheral leukocytes and BM cells of young mice receiving HBO. In old mice colony-forming unit fibroblast numbers, a measure of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from BM, were high but unaffected by HBO. To further explore this finding, in BM-MSCs we quantified the transcripts of adipocyte early-differentiation genes peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-β and fatty-acid binding protein 4; these transcripts were not affected by age or HBO. However, osteoblast gene transcripts runt-related transcription factor 2, osterix (OSX) and alkaline phosphatase (AP) were twofold to 20-fold more abundant in MSCs from old control mice relative to those of young control mice. HBO affected expression of osteoblast markers only in old MSCs (OSX gene expression was reduced by twofold and AP expression was increased threefold)."

Unfortunately no chondrogenic markers were measured.  The study did say the HBO increased the mobilization of MSCs.