ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:Knee osteoarthritis is a joint and articular cartilage degenerative disease,and its biological changes mainly include proliferation and apoptosis of chondrocytes.Articular cartilage holds poor regeneration ability,and tissue-engineered cartilage is of great significance for the articular cartilage repair,while cytokines is a major concem for this repair process.OBJECTIVE:To overview the main regulatory factors involved in the articular cartilage repair and chondrocyte apoptosis.METHODS:PubMed and WanFang databases were retrieved for the literature addressing articular cartilage repair and main regulatory factors involved in articular cartilage repair and chondrocyte apoptosis published from 1999 to 2016.Finally 44 eligible articles were included for analysis.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Various cytokines in different human tissues are closely related to articular cartilage repair,chondrocyte apoptosis and pathological changes of osteoarthritis,which are involved in chondrocyte damage,degradation of cartilage matrix,synovial degeneration and periostosis.There is an increase in the levels of interleukin 1 β and 6,and tumor necrosis factor α following articular cartilage injury.Thereafter,blocking the expression of these cytokines can protect the articular cartilage from damage.Insulin-like growth factor and transforming growth factor play an important regulatory effect on the chondrocyte proliferation and matrix synthesis.Furthermore,various cytokines regulate the articular cartilage repair and reconstruction via complicated pathways.