Artificial tiger bone powder Inhibits the Progression of Knee Osteoarthritis via the Wnt/β-catenin Pathway

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common bone and joint disease around the world. This study tested the ability of Artificial tiger bone powder (ATBP) to inhibit the progression of KOA through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Forty Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into a control group, a KOA group, a low-dose ATBP group and a high-dose group. Knee joints were injected with adjuvant to establish a rat model of KOA. Detect the changes in relevant indicators of rats in each group. interleukin (IL)-1β induced primary chondrocytes to establish the KOA cell model. After treatment with an agonist or inhibitor of Wnt/β-catenin, the levels of Wnt1, β-catenin were analyzed by PCR. Compared with the KOA group, knee joint swelling of the rats in the ATBP treatment groups was reduced, while the joint score were all significantly lower ( P < 0.05). In the IL-1β-induced chondrocytes treated with ATBP, the expression of type II collagen (Col II) was increased significantly ( P < 0.05). Compared with the IL-1β group, the levels of Wnt1, β-catenin in the agonist-induced group were significantly increased, while in the inhibitor-treated group they were significantly decreased ( P < 0.05). ATBP inhibits the progression of KOA via the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.