BACKGROUND:Osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, is not only a result from the breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone, but also an imbalance of bone remodeling and crosstalk among tissues in the joints. OBJECTIVE: To review the effect of bone-cartilage crosstalk in the progression of osteoarthritis and its new treatment strategy. METHODS: A computer-based search of PubMed and CNKI databases was performed for relevant literatures about the relationship between the progress of osteoarthritis and the bone-cartilage crosstalk published from 2007 to 2017. The keywords were cartilage, interaction, osteoarthritis, pathogenesis, cytokines, signaling pathway in English and Chinese, respectively. The relationship between the progress of osteoarthritis and the bone-cartilage crosstalk was summarized in views of cytokines, signaling pathway, and new treatment strategy. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Totally 169 articles were retrieved, and finally 54 eligible papers were enrolled based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. There is a close physical association between subchondral bone and cartilage, and the bone-cartilage interface is a functioning synergistic unit. Increased vascularization, micro-crack formation and abnormal bone remodeling may accelerate the molecules transporting from cartilage to bone in osteoarthritis. Therefore, the bone-cartilage crosstalk plays a pivotal role in the occurrence and development of osteoarthritis.

Traditional Chinese medicine treatment is the key to restore the balance of Yin and Yang through gasification. So it is important to discuss the mode of gasificaiton of Qi and Chinese medicine and their relationship in the machanism of the Chinese medicine for diseases. Life is a mode of Qi and Qi movement and gasificaiton make people alive. The Chinese medicine works on the Qi gasification to balance the Yin and Yang to keep the peace inner and outsides.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) compound "Ji-Sui-Kang (JSK)" on the differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs).Drug serum of JSK was prepared.The primary NSCs were isolated and cultured.NSCs were identified.Fetal bovine serum (FBS) was used to induce differentiation of NSCs.Different doses of drug serum of JSK was added to intervene the differentiation.There were the high-,medium-,and low-dose group.The blank control group was also set.The β Ⅲ-tubulin and GFAP were used to detect the differentiation of NSCs.And then,it was compared with the control group without drug serum.Positive cells ofβ m-tubulin and GFAP in different visual fields were counted.And the percentage of positive cells in the total number of cells was calculated.Fluorescence microscope was used to conduct quantitative fluorescence experiments.The results showed that the cultured neurospheres were expressed of Nestin protein.The percentage ofβⅢ-tubulin positive cells in the high-,medium-and low-dose group of drug serum of JSK was significantly higher than that in the control group (P＜0.05).The percentage of GFAP positive cells in the high-,medium-and low-dose groups of drug serum of JSK was significantly lower than that in the control group (P＜0.05).And the high-dose group of drug serum of JSK was statistically significant compared with the middle-and low-dose group of drug serum of JSK (P＜0.01).It was concluded that TCM compound JSK promoted thedifferentiation of NSCs intoβⅢ-tubulin positive cells.It provided a basis for treatment of SCI with TCM.