CASP3 and osteoarthritis: We found, unexpectedly, that short-term treatment with SF-CM significantly increased Caspase-3/7 activity and SDC4 expression in articular chondrocyte cultures, while it reduced the expression of genes associated with osteoarthritis and/or encoding components of the cartilage extracellular matrix, including THBS4. Albeit interesting and worth being further investigated, the most important finding related to the present study however was that THBS4 administration did not affect any of the tested parameters, and it did not protect against the negative influence of SF-CM.