| Osteoarthritis is a chronic joint disease that occurs in areas of greater weight-bearing, such as knee, hip and spine. The etiology is complex and has not been fully elucidated yet. With the aggravation of population aging in our country, the incidence of osteoarthritis continues to increase. Statistics show that the incidence of osteoarthritis in mainland China is around 13%. The current clinical treatment of osteoarthritis including conservative and surgical therapy. For example, knee osteoarthritis could have conservative treatment or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, high tibial osteotomy and double room replacement surgery, etc. Surgical treatment can treat knee osteoarthritis, but involves trauma and high cost, and the effect of the existing conservative treatment is not significant, so finding effective treatment of osteoarthritis becomes even more urgent. In recent years, studies have shown that Icariin has a positive and significant role in the treatment of osteoarthritis. It could effectively promote bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into cartilage, promote chondrocyte proliferation, and repair cartilage lesions caused by osteoarthritis. It can inhibit the degradation of cartilage extracellular matrix, and delay the destruction of cartilage tissue caused by osteoarthritis. It can also promote osteoblast proliferation, promote osteogenesis and normalize demineralization disorders at early stage osteoarthritis to prevent further subchondral bone lesions. It can also inhibit osteoclasts activity, and thus protect the subchondral bone. In addition, it can inhibit inflammatory factor-induced synovitis, and relieve pain and other symptoms caused by arthritis. In short, Icariin can treat osteoarthritis effectively, especially in the early stage. Currently studies are limited to tissue and animal experiments, in order to clarify the effectiveness of Icariin in the treatment of osteoarthritis, more clinical studies are needed, which is the direction of future research. |