Effects of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs on Proliferation, Cytotoxicityand Apoptosis in Cultured Fetal Rat Epiphyseal-articular Chondrocytes

INTRODUCTION: Previous reports indicated that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) suppress bone repair in vivo. Our previous study further found that ketorolac suppressed bone repair at the early stage of endochondral ossification. Furthermore, we also found that NSAIDs suppressed osteoblast proliferation in vitro, which may be one of the important factors contributing to their inhibitory effects on bone repair in vivo. Chondrocytic functions play an important role on endochondral ossification during bone repair process. We hypothesized that another possible mechanism of these inhibitory effects of NSAIDs on bone repair may be affecting the functions of chondrocytes. In this study, we investigated the effects of 4 common used NSAIDs and 2 cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) selective inhibitors on proliferation, cell cycle kinetics, cytotoxicity and cell death induction in cultured epiphyseal-articular chondrocytes obtained from knee of fetal rats.