Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and the related apoptosis and inflammation damage play key roles in osteoarthritis development. The aim of the present work was to investigate the exact role and potential underlying mechanism of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) in rat chondrocytes exposed to interleukin-Iβ (IL-1β). We observed that IL-1β stimulation resulted in an apparent enhancement in PKM2 expression. Additionally, loss of PKM2 evidently ascended cell viability in response to IL-1β exposure. Simultaneously, elimination of PKM2 manifestly repressed IL-1β-stimulated chondrocyte apoptosis, concomitant with attenuated in the proapoptotic protein markers Bax and cleaved caspase-3, and elevated the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2. In the meanwhile, knockdown of PKM2 ameliorated ER stress in IL-1β-treated chondrocytes, as evidenced by reduced expression of the ER stress-associated proteins GRP78, CHOP, and cleaved caspase-12. Furthermore, PKM2 silencing protected chondrocytes against IL-1β-triggered inflammatory response, as reflected by the downregulated release of proinflammatory mediators, including tumor necrosis factor-α, IL-6, inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase-2, and prostaglandin E2, as well as decreased nitric oxide generation. More important, abrogating PKM2 expression caused a marked decline in Rspo2 expression, and subsequently blocked Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Mechanistically, the Wnt/β-catenin signaling activator Licl effectively impeded the beneficial effects of PKM2 ablation on IL-1β-stimulated apoptosis and inflammatory response. These findings collectively implicated that PKM2 inhibition protected against ER stress-mediated cell apoptosis and inflammatory injury in rat chondrocytes stimulated with IL-1β by inactivating Rspo2-mediated Wnt/β-catenin pathway, and may represented a novel therapeutic target for osteoarthritis.
Keywords: PKM2; Rspo2/Wnt/β-catenin signaling; apoptosis; endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress; inflammatory response.
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