ATG5 and osteoarthritis: Notably, according to the data from Xu et al., ASP regulates the MEK/ERK pathway to induce protective autophagy and suppress sodium nitroprusside (SNP)-induced cell apoptosis in osteoarthritis chondrocytes [26], which convinces us to speculate that ASP may regulate the MEK/ERK pathway mediated autophagy to attenuate DB-induced cell apoptosis in hepatocytes.