Abstract: Osteoarthritis（OA） is one of the most common diseases in middle age and senior person, which is mainly characterized by degradation of articular cartilage. Hypoxia inducible factor（HIF） is a transcription factor which is generated by cells under hypoxia environment. HIF can promote the transcription of genes that response to hypoxia situation. Recently, several researches show that HIF- 1α is involved in the pathogenesis of OA. This
review summarized current knowledge of the structure, regulation and mechanism of HIF- 1αin the pathogenesis of OA.