Moxibustion Alleviates Inflammatory Injury in Rats with Knee Osteoarthritis by Regulating α-Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone
Objective To investigate the therapeutic mechanism of moxibustion on inflammatory injury in knee osteoarthritis (KOA)by regulating α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH)in serum and synovial fluid.Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into normal group,model group,moxibustion group,and α-ΜSH antagonist+moxibustion group,with 10 rats in each group.Sodium iodoacetate injection was used to establish a rat model of KOA.The rats in the moxibustion group and the α-MSH antagonist+moxibustion group were treated with suspended moxibustion at Dubi and Zusanli for 15 minutes at each point,once a day for 4 weeks,and those in the α-MSH antagonist+moxibustion group were given intraperitoneal injection of α-MSH antago-nist before suspended moxibustion.After treatment,HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of rat knee joints;ELISA was used to measure the expression level of α-MSH in serum and synovial fluid and the expression levels of tumor necrosis fac-tor-α(TNF-α)and interleukin-1β(IL-1β)in serum;Western blot was used to measure the levels of inhibitor of NF-κB-α(IKB-α)and phosphorylated p65 in cartilage tissue,and quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure the mRNA expression levels of IKB-α and p65 in cartilage tissue.Results For the rats with KOA,moxibustion significantly increased the expression level of α-MSH in serum and synovial fluid and the protein and mRNA expression levels of IKB-α in cartilage tissue(P<0.05),and it significantly reduced the serum levels of TNF-α and IL-1β and the protein expression level of phosphorylated p65 and the mRNA expression level of p65 in carti-lage tissue(P<0.05).The α-MSH antagonist antagonized the effect of moxibustion in upregulating the protein and mRNA expression levels of IKB-α in cartilage tissue and downregulating the protein expression level of phosphorylated p65 and the mRNA expression level of p65 in cartilage tissue.Conclusion Moxibustion can alleviate inflammatory injury in KOA rats by regulating the expression of α-MSH,possibly through inhibiting the NF-κB signaling pathway.
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