Carnosol ameliorates monosodium iodoacetate-induced osteoarthritis by targeting NF-κB and Nrf-2 in primary rat chondrocytes

Oxidative stress and nf-κb signaling plays a major role in pathogenesis of osteoarthritis. in the present study,we analyzed the potent role of carnosol against osteoarthritis in cells treated using monosodium iodoacetate (mia) model through in vitro studies. mia caused dose-dependent cell death and induced programmed cell death by increasing subg1 accumulation and caspase-3 expressions. mia caused oxidative stress by increasing reactive oxygen species,lipid peroxidation and further induced nf-κb expression and down regulated nrf-2 levels. pre-treatment with carnosol significantly protected the cells by reducing the oxidative stress markers and improved the cell viability up to 98%. further,carnosol down regulated nf-κb nuclear expression with a concomitant increase in nrf-2 nuclear localization and up regulated the nuclear nrf-2 levels. carnosol also inhibited mia-induced subg1 accumulation and caspase-3 activation. this study demonstrates that,carnosol might act as potent antioxidant and regulate mia-induced oxidative stress,nf-κb signaling and programmed cell death by up regulating the nrf-2 levels. © 2016 faculty of health and social sciences,university of south bohemia in ceske budejovice