Therefore, the down-regulation of TNF- would be a reasonable approach for treatment of OA (Heard et al., 2012). Anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-4 has been shown to enhance the synthesis of type I pro-collagen and the production of TIMP in human mononuclear phagocytes and cartilage explants, but they have also been shown to suppress metalloproteinase production (Fotopoulos et al., 2012). Our results showed that SS extract caused the down-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine-mediated protein degradation. It suggests that SS provides effective protection from cartilage damage, leading to inhibition of cartilage degradation.