MMP3 and osteoarthritis: NLRP3 inflammasome has been implicated in osteoarthritis pathological progression through secreting proinflammatory cytokines including IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), producing cartilage degrading enzymes like MMP3 and aggravating synovial membrane inflammation (Mathiessen and Conaghan, 2017; McAllister et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2019).