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Updated: Aug 10, 2026
Software-Assisted Quantitative Measurement of Osteoarthritic Subchondral Bone Thickness
Published on: March 18, 2022
Celastrol attenuates pain and cartilage damage via SDF-1/CXCR4 signalling pathway in osteoarthritis rats
Weifeng Wang1,2, Chengzhi Ha2, Tao Lin3
1Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
Objectives:
Celastrol has attracted wide interests for its anticancer and anti-inflammation properties, and studies have demonstrated that celastrol negatively modulates the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) signalling. We aim in this study to investigate the effects of celastrol in osteoarthritis (OA) in vivo and explored the underlying molecular mechanisms.
Methods:
We established a monoiodoacetate (MIA)-induced rat OA model and evaluated the joint pain and cartilage damage with or without celastrol treatments. We further assessed the alterations of the SDF-1/CXCR4 pathway and cartilage-specific genes, at both mRNA and protein levels.
Key Findings:
Celastrol significantly attenuated the joint pain and cartilage damage induced by MIA in OA rats and suppressed the upregulation of SDF-1/CXCR4 and associated genes caused by MIA injections. Furthermore, MIA induced a decrease in cartilage-specific genes which was also prevented by celastrol treatments.
Conclusions:
Celastrol ameliorate OA in vivo as evidenced by the attenuated joint pain and less cartilage damage in OA rats given celastrol treatments, an effect mediated via suppression of the SDF-1/CXCR4 pathway.
