Fig. 1

Risk factors, pathogenic mechanisms, and common treatments for OA. a Common risk factors that can lead to OA include aging, obesity, trauma, overuse due to occupational reasons, heredity, and infection. b Common pathophysiological changes in OA progress. Pathogenic pathways include MAPK, AKT, mTORC1, AMPK, Hippo, NF-κB, etc., regulated by cellular senescence, metabolic disorder and mechanical stress. They have shown to accelerate OA progress thorough chondrocyte apoptosis and ECM degradation. c The indications for OA therapy include moderate exercise, a healthy diet, medicine, intra-articular injection of functional components, and surgery. OA osteoarthritis, IGF-1 insulin-like growth factor-1, MAPK mitogen-activated protein kinase, AKT serine/threonine kinase Akt, also known as protein kinase B, SASP senescence-associated secretory phenotype, mTORC1 mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1, MSC mesenchymal stem cell, ECM extra cellular matrix, AMPK adenosine 5’-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase, Sox 9 SRY-related high mobility group-box 9, NF-κB nuclear factor kappa-B, RANKL receptor activator of NF-κB ligand, BMMC bone marrow mononuclear cell. It was created utilizing the templates on BioRender.com as a reference