The human chondrocyte cell line CHON-001 and 293T cells were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection. Cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium (Invitrogen; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Invitrogen; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) and 2 mM glutamine (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck KGaA) andplaced at 37˚C in a humidified incubator containing 5% CO2. CHON-001 cells were treated with 10 ng/ml interleukin (IL)-1β (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck KGaA) at room temperaturefor 24 h to generate an in vitro model of OA (16 (link)). The nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) inhibitor BAY 11-7085 (10 µM) was purchased from MedChemExpress.