Osteoarthritis (OA) is the commonest chronic disease, with an estimated 9.6% of men and 18.0% of women aged over 60years having symptomatic OA according to the World Health Organisation. Despite this prevalence, no therapies to slow disease progression are currently available. Oxidative stress has been described as an important factor in various diseases, and more recently in OA. Evidence for using antioxidants to reduce OA severity is slowly accumulating but further understanding of their chondroprotective mechanisms in joint tissues is still required to demonstrate potential benefit to patients. A new study implicates the transcriptional repressor Bach-1 and its downstream target HO-1 as important players in this process.