免疫刺激性细胞因子IL-18诱导炎性衰老并损害干细胞介导的实验性骨骼再生

Acknowledgements

Figure 5O and Supplementary Fig. 25 were created in BioRender. Xu, J. (2026) https://BioRender.com/yzrlmjq. Some drawing elements in Fig. 6A and C were adapted from Servier Medical Art (http://smart.servier.com/), provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Some mouse illustrations were adapted from “Simple cartoon mouse 1” by lemmling, available via Openclipart under the Public Domain.

Funding

This work was funded by National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2022YFC2502900, 2022YFC2502901, 2022YFC2502903), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82472446), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Nos. 2023A1515010368, 2022A1515110127), Outstanding Youths Development Scheme of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (No. 2023J001), Qinghai Key Laboratory Of Tibetan Medicine Pharmacology and Safety Evaluation, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2024-ZY-01), Construction Project of Ganzhou City Key Laboratory of Bone Metabolism (No. 2024YSPT0017), and Ganzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (2023 “Technology+Medical” Joint Plan Project - Key Research and Development Plan - Ganzhou) (No. 2023LNs17487).

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Author notes

These authors contributed equally: Yangshuai Gao, Liang Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

Division of Spine Surgery, Department of Orthopaedics, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510515, China
Yangshuai Gao, Qixuan Lin, Shaokang Chen, Jiahan Chen, Hang Shen, Zhongmin Zhang & Jiajia Xu
Academy of Orthopedics, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Bone and Joint Degeneration Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510630, China
Liang Wang, Minjun Huang, Xiaochun Bai & Jiajia Xu
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China
Yaokai Gan
Department of Trauma Emergency Center, Ganzhou People’s Hospital, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China
Mingheng Li
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Lu’an Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Lu’an, Anhui, 237001, China
Quan Zheng
Center for Organogenesis, Regeneration and Trauma, Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
Dimitri Sokolowskei & Robert J. Tower
Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory, Centre for Musculoskeletal Degeneration & Regeneration, Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, China
Jiankun Xu
Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
Aaron W. James
Department of Cell Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510515, China
Xiaochun Bai

Authors

Yangshuai Gao
Liang Wang
Yaokai Gan
Qixuan Lin
Shaokang Chen
Mingheng Li
Jiahan Chen
Hang Shen
Quan Zheng
Dimitri Sokolowskei
Robert J. Tower
Minjun Huang
Jiankun Xu
Aaron W. James
Xiaochun Bai
Zhongmin Zhang
Jiajia Xu

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaochun Bai, Zhongmin Zhang or Jiajia Xu.

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A patent application has been filed related to the findings reported in this manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests.

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Gao, Y., Wang, L., Gan, Y. et al. Immune-stimulatory cytokine IL-18 induces inflammatory senescence and impairs stem cell-mediated experimental skeletal regeneration. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78662-y

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Received: 16 September 2025
Accepted: 28 September 2026
Published: 16 October 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78662-y