Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disorder that adversely affects the quality of life of patients.Its pathological characteristics mainly involve the degeneration,destruction,and functional loss of articular cartilage.As one of the most crucial structures in the joint,articular cartilage is an avascular tissue composed of extracellular matrix synthesized by sparsely distributed chondrocytes.Chondrocyte apoptosis is one of the programmed cell death modalities of chondrocytes.During the normal physiological process,the proliferation and apoptosis of chondrocytes maintain a dynamic equilibrium,jointly safeguarding the homeostasis of articular cartilage.However,in the osteoarthritis process,the stimulation of related cytokines after tissue damage induces an imbalance between chondrocyte proliferation and apoptosis,resulting in excessive chondrocyte apoptosis,and subsequently leading to the degradation and degeneration of cartilage.Clinically,traditional Chinese medicine and its related therapeutic approaches remain one of the principal means for treating osteoarthritis in China.The traditional Chinese medicine,which are bioactive compounds extracted from traditional herbal medicines,has gradually gained recognition thanks to their convenient to take and remarkable therapeutic effect.Therefore,this review takes the signaling pathways involved in the inhibition of chondrocyte apoptosis by traditional Chinese medicine as the entry point,systematically retrieves and screens and summarizes relevant studies at home and abroad in the past five years,and analyzes the mechanism of action of related signaling pathways in the treatment of chondrocyte apoptosis in osteoarthritis by traditional Chinese Medicine,providing new options for the pharmacological treatment of osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disorder that adversely affects the quality of life of patients.Its pathological characteristics mainly involve the degeneration,destruction,and functional loss of articular cartilage.As one of the most crucial structures in the joint,articular cartilage is an avascular tissue composed of extracellular matrix synthesized by sparsely distributed chondrocytes.Chondrocyte apoptosis is one of the programmed cell death modalities of chondrocytes.During the normal physiological process,the proliferation and apoptosis of chondrocytes maintain a dynamic equilibrium,jointly safeguarding the homeostasis of articular cartilage.However,in the osteoarthritis process,the stimulation of related cytokines after tissue damage induces an imbalance between chondrocyte proliferation and apoptosis,resulting in excessive chondrocyte apoptosis,and subsequently leading to the degradation and degeneration of cartilage.Clinically,traditional Chinese medicine and its related therapeutic approaches remain one of the principal means for treating osteoarthritis in China.The traditional Chinese medicine,which are bioactive compounds extracted from traditional herbal medicines,has gradually gained recognition thanks to their convenient to take and remarkable therapeutic effect.Therefore,this review takes the signaling pathways involved in the inhibition of chondrocyte apoptosis by traditional Chinese medicine as the entry point,systematically retrieves and screens and summarizes relevant studies at home and abroad in the past five years,and analyzes the mechanism of action of related signaling pathways in the treatment of chondrocyte apoptosis in osteoarthritis by traditional Chinese Medicine,providing new options for the pharmacological treatment of osteoarthritis.

PURPOSE: Sorafenib, a multikinase inhibitor, is the standard therapy for patients with advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, resistance develops to the treatment, therefore, we tried to unravel the underlying mechanism in the resistance of HCC cells to sorafenib via the development of more effective therapeutic strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Various liver cancer cell lines were treated with either sorafenib only or with sorafenib after infection of adenovirus expressing short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and p38 activity was examined using western blotting. RESULTS: p38 MAP kinase activity was inhibited by low concentrations of sorafenib, which could potentially lead to sorafenib resistance in HCC cell lines. Subsequently, we used constitutive form of MKK3/6 (MKK3/6E) to confirm that massive cell death was induced by the activation of p38, and demonstrated the ability to activate p38 without any stimulation. In addition, sorafenib resistance was reduced by the activation of p38. Subsequently, we confirmed that TGF-β shRNA effectively recovered the phosphorylation of p38 inhibited by sorafenib, and increased the sensitivity of HCC cells to sorafenib, thereby inducing cell death and overcoming the resistance of HCC cells to sorafenib. CONCLUSION: Our study provides a new therapeutic strategy for HCC that overcomes the resistance of HCC to sorafenib by down-regulation of TGF-β.
Adenoviridae ; Blotting, Western ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Cell Death ; Cell Line ; Down-Regulation* ; Humans ; Liver Neoplasms ; p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; Phosphorylation ; RNA, Small Interfering