Abstract:[Objective] To investigate the effect of miR-145 transfection in vivo on articular cartilage of osteoarthritis (OA) model in mice. [Methods] Forty male C57 mice aged 8 weeks were randomly divided into 4 groups with 10 mice in each group, including normal con- trol group (NC) , osteoarthritis model group (OAM) , transfected normal animal (TNA) , and transfected OA model (TOAM) . The animals in the OAM and TOAM groups received total resection of medial meniscus-tibial ligament to create OA model. At 7 d and 10 d, 20 μl of ade- nosis vector carrying miR-145 was injected into the joint cavity of the mice in the TOAM group and TNA group. The animals were sacri- ficed after another 4 days by excessive anesthesia, and then gross and histological observation were conducted, while qPCR and western blot assays were used to detect corresponding markers. [Results] In terms of morphology, the structure of articular cartilage in OAM group was obviously disordered, with fibrocyte proliferation and matrix stained in mainly blue-green compared with the NC group, while which preserved intact in structure, but with vacuoles in the lacunae, and the matrix in blue-green in the TNA group, whereas intact cartilage structure was noted in the TOAM group with red color of articular cartilage matrix similar to the NC group. In term of immunohistochemis- try, the OD values of FRS2, LC3 and p62 staining were significantly increased in OAM group compared with those in the NC group and TNA group (P<0.05) , whereas which in the TOAM group were significantly lower than those in OAM group and TNA group (P<0.05) . In terms of the quantitative detections, mRNA expression level of miR-145 in OAM group was significantly decreased (P<0.05) , while which significantly ramped up in the TNA group and TOAM group compared with NC group (P<0.05) . In OAM group the LC3II/I ratio significant- ly decreased (P<0.05) and p62 expression level were significantly increased compared with those in NC group (P<0.05) , while which in the TOAM group was significantly lower than that in OAM group and TNA group (P<0.05) . [Conclusion] In vivo transfection of miR-145 does alleviate cartilage impairment in this joint instable state for marking OA model, and its mechanism may be related to the change of autopha- gy function of cartilage.