Objective To study whether IL-1β, a catabolic factor of cartilage metabolism, induces premature senescence of articular chondrocytes, and whether caveolin-1 mediates IL-1β-induced cellular senescence. Methods Cultured human articular chondrocytes were stimulated with 10 ng/ml IL-1β. Cellular senescent phenotypes were analyzed by cellular morphology, cell growth arrest (flow cytometry), telomere erosion (Southern blotting), life span (population doublings), and specific senescence-associated β-galac-tosidase (SA-β-Gal) activity. Expression level of caveolin-1 was modulated by anti-sense oligunucleotide or transfection of caveolin-1 gene. Caveolin-1 protein was analyzed by Western blotting. Results Incubation of chondrocytes with IL-1β markedly increase the percentage of cells in G0/G1 phase and reduce the percentage in S phase. Single stimulation with IL-1β enables chondrocytes to become big and flat, and SA-β-Gal activity in chondrocytes is enhanced. Repeated stimulation with IL-Iβ resulted in accelerats erosion of mean telomere length, and shortens life span. Down-regulation of caveolin-1 with anti-sense oligonucleotide significantly inhibits the features of chondrocytes senescence induced by IL-1β. In contrast, caveolin-1 overexpreasion enhanced SA-β-Gal activity in the chondrocytes. Conclusion IL-1β induces features of stress-induced premature senescence and telemere-dependent replicative senescence of articular chondrocytes, which is mediated by caveolin-1. These data suggest that IL-1β induces premature senescence of articular chondro-cytes by upregulation of caveolin-1, which facilitates the development of osteoarthritis.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between arterial baroreceptor reflex (ABR) function and target organ dam age (TOD) in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) .Methods:Twenty- four- hour blood pressure (SBP and DBP ) ,blood pressure variability (BPV ) ,heart rate (HR ) and HR variability (HRV ) were m easured in conscious, unrestrained SHR and Wistar- Kyoto (WKY ) rats.ABR function control of heart period (ABR- HP) and blood pressure (ABR- BP) were determined respectively.Hypertensive TOD was evaluated according to the scoring system.Results:SBP, DBP and their BPV were significantly increased in SHR compared with those of WKY rats.No difference of HR was found between the 2 strains,but HRV was significantly decreased in SHR when com pared with WKY rats.ABR- HP and ABR- BP of SHR were significantly decreased compared with those of WKY rats (P

Monoclonal antibody drugs that inhibit programmed death 1 (PD-1) or programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) have been widely used in esophageal cancer (EC) and yielded significant therapeutic responses. However, only a few patients obtain lasting clinical benefits due to primary or acquired drug resistance, and new treatment schemes are urgently needed. The tumor immune microenvironment is the main factor that affects patients' response to immunosuppressive agents. This article will discuss the role of immunosuppressive cells and non-cellular components in the immune process to provide ideas for the next research direction of EC.