Abstract
Objective
To observe the effect of melatonin intervention on rat knee osteoarthritis (KOA) model and explore its mechanism.
Methods
A total of 81 Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats were employed. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and safranin o-solid green staining were used to observe the changes of pathology in KOA, and inflammation factors in serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), type II collagen (Col-II) was detected by immunohistochemistry, chondrocyte apoptosis was detected by TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL). The expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and JAK2/STAT3 signaling were detected by western blot.
Results
Melatonin treatment ameliorated the histomorphology of knee joint in rats compared to the model group. The contents of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in serum were decreased after melatonin treatment. In addition, compared to the model group, the positive expression of Col-II increased, the chondrocyte apoptosis decreased after melatonin treatment. Interestingly, the expression levels of MMP3, MMP9, MMP13, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 decreased (p < 0.05). Importantly, melatonin combined with AG490 is significantly ameliorates histomorphology of knee joint, reduced cartilage loss compared with melatonin treatment alone.
Conclusions
Melatonin treatment can effectively diminish the cartilage injury. Its mechanism may be related to protect the articular cartilage by reducing the release of inflammatory factors, inhibit the expression of MMPs and JAK2/STAT3 signaling.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Change history
30 May 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-023-01245-6
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Funding
This study was supported by the Project of Yantai Science and Technology Innovation and Development (2020MSGY083).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Zhongyuan Zhao, Benjun Bi, Gong Cheng, Yuchi Zhao, Hao Wu, Mingdi Zheng, Zhilin Cao. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Zhongyuan Zhao, Benjun Bi, Zhilin Cao and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was approved by the animal ethics committee of Yantaishan Hospital, and all experimental procedures were conducted according to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Institutes of Health, NIH).
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Zhao, Z., Bi, B., Cheng, G. et al. Melatonin ameliorates osteoarthritis rat cartilage injury by inhibiting matrix metalloproteinases and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. Inflammopharmacol 31, 359–368 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-022-01102-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10787-022-01102-y