Fig. 3. Sal B promotes chondrocyte proliferation and inhibits chondrocyte apoptosis. IL-1β (5 ng mL⁻¹) stimulated OA chondrocytes for 6 h and the cells were divided into the following 5 groups, the control group, control cells + IL-1β induced group, IL-1β + Sal B 20 μM group and IL-1β + Sal B 40 μM group and IL-1β + Sal B 80 μM group. (A) The proliferation of chondrocytes was detected by CCK8 assay; (B and C) western blot were used to detect the expression of COL1A1 and COL10A1 in chondrocytes. (D and E)The expression level of Bax and Bcl-2 was detected by western blot. The GAPDH was used as the internal reference. **P < 0.01 versus control group, ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 versus IL-1β induction group.