Hydrogen Sulphyde can exert functional effects on biological targets such as human chondrocytes: osteoarthrosis and related skeletal diseases are the most common chronic conditions.Hydrogen Sulphyde can upregulate endogenous antioxidant systems and can exert additive effects with known antioxidants.

BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION Osteoarthrosis and related skeletal muscle diseases are the most common chronic conditions affecting aged people in Western populations and X-ray evidence of osteoarthrosis is typical of the majority of people aged 65 and about 80% of those aged 75 and over . Risk factors for osteoarthrosis (age, sex, race, genetics, metabolic, etc.) may influence the normal repair mechanisms of cartilage or its degradative activity, and the loss of cartilage is one of their consequences. Chondrocyte function in cartilage remodelling responds to different extracellular stimuli (cytokines, growth factors, mechanical load) by activating two distinct functional programs; i.e., an anabolic and a catabolic one . H2S, together with NO and CO, belongs to a family of labile biological mediators termed gasotransmitters, which share many similarities as a gasotransmitter, H2S rapidly travels through cell membranes without using specific transporters. H2S exerts a host of biological effects on various biological targets, resulting in responses that range from cytotoxic effects to cytoprotective actions. At micromolar concentrations, multiple studies have demonstrated the cytoprotective (antinecrotic or antiapoptotic) effects of H2S. Multiple studies have also demonstrated that low levels of H2S can upregulate endogenous antioxidant systems and can exert additive effects with known antioxidants, including N-acetylcysteine, glutathione and superoxide dismutase. Inhibition of endogenous H2S production has been shown to enhance the cytotoxic effect of exogenous H2S, which points towards a cytoprotective effect of low (physiological) levels of endogenous sulphide. Higher (millimolar) H2S exposure tends to be cytotoxic to the cells; this is due to free radical and oxidant generation, calcium mobilization, glutathione depletion, intracellular iron release, as well as induction of mitochondrial cell death pathways.We will investigate all these pathways:(i)neo-cartilage formation,(ii)ultrastractural modifications, (iii)(PI3-K)/Akt signalling. OBJECTIVE: In addition to being administered by means of thiolic molecules, the HS group can also be given by means of mud pack of sulphurous thermal water. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Hydrogen Sulphyde contained in sulphurous thermal water on chondrocyte function in cartilage remodelling responds to different extracellular stimuli.Usually the positive effects of the activity of sulphurous thermal waters has been partially based on the patients' subjective sense of well being and partially on not always easy to quantify symptomatic (or general) clinical improvements. Our potential findings could indicate that, in addition to their known activity and trophic effects, the HS groups present in the sulphurous thermal water also have antioxidant activity that contributes to the therapeutic effects of the water in osteoarthrosis and related skeletal muscle diseases.