To review the progress of mechanism of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) on normal and osteoarthritis (OA) cartilage and subchondral bones.
Recent literature about the effects of PTH and PTHrP on normal and OA cartilage was reviewed.
PTH and PTHrP can repress the hypertrophic differentiation and apoptosis of chondrocytes and promote their proliferation, which has a protection effect on chondrocytes of OA; osteoblasts from subchondral bone of OA show a decreased reaction to PTH.
PTH and PTHrP may delay and protect the progression of OA, which involves in regulating cartilage degeneration and subchondral bone remodeling through many kinds of signal pathway.