The degenerative joint disease such as osteoarthritis (OA) is closely associated with the death of chondrocytes in
apoptosis fashion. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), higher expression following acute damage in OA patients, has been shown
to be up-regulated during apoptosis in a bulk of experimental models. This study was aimed to explore the mechanism of
H2O2-induced rabbit chondrocytes apoptosis. Articular cartilage was biopsied from the joints of 6 weeks old New
Zealand rabbits. Cell Counting Kit (CCK-8) assay was used to assess the inhibitory effect of H2O2 on cell viability. H2O2
treatment induced a remarkable reduction of cell viability. We used flow cytometry to assess the form of cell death with
Annexin-V/PI double staining, and found that H2O2 treatment induced apoptosis in a dose-and time-dependent manner.
Exposure of chondrocytes to 1.5 mM of H2O2 for 2 h induced a burst apoptosis that can be alleviated by N-acetyl
cysteine (NAC) pretreatment, an anti-oxidant amino-acid derivative. Loss of mitochondria membrane potential (▵Ψm)
was evaluated using confocal microscopy imaging and flow cytometry (FCM). H2O2 treatment induced a marked
reduction of ▵Ψm, and the abrupt disappearance of ▵Ψm occurred within 5 minutes. These results indicate that H2O2
induces a rapid apoptosis via a mitochondrial pathway in rabbit chondrocytes.
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