Dr. Chunyi WEN and his team, is one of the leading research groups worldwide, focusing on vascular origin of aging and age-related diseases. Dr. Wen observed a clinical association between hypertension and osteoarthritis (Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2013). This finding led a way in Dr. Wen’s research to searched for the underlying molecular link between these two prevalent debilitating age-related diseases (Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2015). Under the auspices of RGC, Dr. Wen and his team finally identified endothelin-1 (ET-1), the most potent vasoconstrictor in hypertension, contributing to articular chondrocyte senescence and osteoarthritis pathology (Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2020). It substantiates the vascular aetiology hypothesis of osteoarthritis and opens up a new avenue for discovery of novel mechanism-based disease-modifying therapies against osteoarthritis.Therefore, Dr. Wen has been invited to review current knowledge and to discuss future development along this direction on Nature Review Rheumatology in July, 2021.
