A Study On The Effect And Mechanism Of Polygalacic Acid On Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis(OA)is a chronic degenerative joint disease that has been shown to be closely accociated with overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases(MMPs).Polygalacic acid is a triterpenoid isolated from the roots of Polygala.In this paper,the anti-inflammatory effects of polygalacic acid on OA and its in vitro and in vivo mechanisms were studied.in vitro experiments using interleukin-1 beta(IL-1?)induced rat chondrocytes to construct an in vitro inflammatory model of OA,treated with different concentrations of polygalacic acid;real-time PCR and Western blotting were performed to evaluate the expressions of MMP-3,MMP-9,MMP-13,and COX-2.In addition,the mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)signaling pathway and the wnt/?-catenin signaling pathway were analyzed by immunoblotting and immunofluorescence staining.In vivo,a rat OA model was treated with polygalacic acid.Gross morphological and histological assessments were performed to evaluate the resulting cartilage damage.The results showed that polygalacic acid significantly reduced the expression of MMPs and COX-2,which could be induced by IL-1? in rat chondrocytes.Furthermore,polygalacic acid can repair cartilage damage in the rat OA model.To investigate the underlying mechanism,The results showed that polygalacic acid inhibited the activation of Wnt/?-catenin and the activation of MAPK signaling pathway in rat chondrocytes induced by IL-1?.These results suggest that polygalacic acid may have a therapeutic effect on OA patients.