Uridine relieves MSCs and chondrocyte senescence <i>in vitvo</i> and exhibits the potential to treat osteoarthritis <i>in vivo</i>

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease of extremely high incidence in the elderly. Therefore, anti-aging may be an important prerequisite for treating OA. The senescence of chondrocytes and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is one of the important factors that causes OA. Here, the effect of uridine (which is a functional food derived from plants or animals) on senescence of chondrocytes and MSCs was evaluated in <i>in vivo</i> and <i>in vitro</i> experiments. For this, we established the senescence model of chondrocyte and MSCs <i>in vitro</i>, and established the OA model <i>in vivo</i>, and a series of experiments (such as CLSM, ELISA, Western blot, etc.) were conducted to evaluate the effect of uridine on chondrocyte and MSCs senescence. The results showed that uridine could alleviate chondrocyte and MSCs senescence <i>in vitro</i> by evaluating a series of aging markers. Furthermore, uridine could also relieve OA <i>in vivo</i>. In summary, in the present work, we found that uridine can alleviate chondrocyte and MSCs senescence in <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> experiments. Uridine has shown great potential in the treatment of OA <i>in vivo</i>, suggesting that uridine could be used to treat and prevent OA induced by aging, and has potential clinical applications in future.