Here is my method of making someone taller, this is all theoretical at this point:(beware this is a long post)
The only current method to grow taller currently is a procedure known as distraction osteogenesis or limb lengthening. It involves breaking the bone targeted (commonly tibia,fibula or femur) and pulling apart the bone a millimeter a day, allowing the body to create bone in that gap. It is obviously very painful, expensive, the patient has to relearn how to walk and complications in limb lengthening are common. Patients usually suffer for a growth of 3-6 inches, and that can take up to a year. Basically bone growth is limited, painful and only confined to the legs. The proportions of that person could look unnatural afterwards.
What I propose would be a an incision made at the now fused epiphyseal line through a surgical procedure. Some quick info-In the long bones(arms,legs,clavicles and parts of hands/feet) of the human body, bone growth occurs at the epiphyseal plate. The epiphyseal plate is located near the end of the bone, at the metaphysis. When the population of chondrocytes is exhausted, bone growth ceases and the growth plate fuses into a "line".
I don't imagine it the incision of the bone to be very large and it would not need to be pulled apart excruciatingly every single day. Instead the method of bone growth would involve the following:
1) Extract a supply of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) from the adipose(fat) tissue or yellow bone marrow of the patient. The patient would not experience immune rejection or any diseases that they might from a supply of stem cells from another person
2) Isolate the MSCs from the fat tissue or bone marrow in the lab. Then culture the MSCs into a supply of chondrocytes(cartilage cells)
3) Acquire a supply of human growth hormone(HGH). Create a liposome and fill it with HGH. A liposome is a vehicle used for administration of a drug through targeted drug delivery. The benefit being the possible side effects of the drug will not be distributed through the blood stream and thus affecting the rest of the body.
4) Create some sort of cylindrical device containing the chondrocytes and insert it into the gap since formed in the epiphyseal line of whatever bone(s) in the patient. The device will have to borrow some inspiration from a millipore filter or somehow be engineered to be able to keep the chondrocytes receiving nutrients, particles, etc. Keeping them healthy. A portion at the end towards the diaphysis(center of bone) will have to be designed to encourage vasculature to enter and deliver osteoblasts.
Some quick info-The epiphyseal plate consists of five unique "zones", each representing a different stage of the bone growth process. They are the zones of resting cartilage, proliferating cartilage, hypertrophic cartilage, calcified cartilage and osteoblasts. The best way to describe it is as a transformation from mesenchymal stem cells to cartilage to finally bone.
5) The receptors of the chondrocytes will have to be identified so that the surface ligands of the liposome containing the HGH can connect to the chondrocytes and the HGH can be delivered. This will allow the chondrocytes to proliferate. Important-I believe the dosage(s) of HGH will determine how many chondrocytes proliferate, determining the supply of chondrocytes, thus determining the overall length of bone growth.
6) The genetic potential of the chondrocytes seems to direct the phenotypic expressions of hypertrophy: where the cells grow larger and matrix vesicles(MVs) bud from the membrane into the extracellular matrix. The extracellular matrix is composed of collagens and a proteogycan network. The MVs contain mineral and alkaline phosphatase. The MVs can bind to type X and II collagen. I don't know the origin of type X collagen.
7) The chondrocytes naturally become "calcified" and undergo apoptosis(programmed cell death) at about 21 days. I'm not sure about the mechanism of calcification but I believe the interactions of matrix vesicles with collagen explains the basic origin of this calcified cartilage "scaffold" around which osteoblasts will form bone
8) Vasculature penetrates the structure and deliver osteoblasts. The osteoblasts envelop the vasculature and then begin to secrete osteoid. And so bone is finally formed.
This whole process results in the overall growth in bone length. I believe the primary alterable factors needing to be controlled are the amount of HGH delivered and the design of the cartilage vehicle so vasculature can be encouraged to invade and form the integral end part where actual bone occurs. I am trying to just duplicate the natural bone growth process that occurs in the body. I believe it will involve one surgical procedure and the patient will be able to run, walk, live an active life just how a teenager does as their bones grow during puberty. And I think the amount of inches a person can grow will be indefinite. Thus this therapy will be much much more preferable to limb lengthening.