The Effect of Warm Acupuncture and Moxibustion on the Expressions of ASC,Caspase-1 and P2X7 in Cartilage of Rabbit Knee Osteoarthritis
Objective To investigate the impact of warm acupuncture and moxibustion on the expressions of ASC,Caspase-1 and P2X7 in cartilage tissue of rabbit model of knee osteoarthritis(KOA),and to study the mechanism of warm acupuncture and moxibustion on KOA.Methods A total of forty male New Zealand rab-bits were randomly assigned into blank group,model group,inhibitor group and warm acupuncture and moxi-bustion group,with 10 rabbits in each group.Except blank group,the remaining groups were prepared by the classical plaster tube fixation in the right posterior extension of the knee joint for 4 weeks to establish the rabbit KOA models.After successful modeling,each group was given the corresponding intervention measures.Lequesne MG rating scale was used to evaluate the change of rabbits knee joint state and behavior.HE staining was taken to observe the pathological morphology of rabbit knee cartilage.Immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to detect the expression levels of ASC,Caspase-1 and P2X7 protein in cartilage tissue.Im-munofluorescence was used to detect the expression of Caspase-1 protein.Results Lequesne MG scores showed that there was no significant difference among all groups before modeling(P＞0.05).After modeling,Lequesne MG scores of other groups increased significantly compared with the blank group(P＜0.05).Following the intervention,the scores decreased significantly in the warm acupuncture and moxibustion group and the in-hibitor group compared with the model group(P＜0.05).The HE staining results showed that the surface struc-ture of the cartilage in the blank group was complete,and the cartilage cells were uniform.The cartilage surface of the model group was rough and uneven,the cartilage was damaged obviously,the shape of the cartilage cells were different,and the arrangement of the cartilage cells was disordered.In the warm acupuncture and moxibus-tion group and the inhibitor group,the surface of cartilage is relatively smooth and complete,and the distribution of cartilage cells was relatively uniform,and the structure of the cartilage layer was relatively clear.Mankin's scoring results showed that the model group had higher scores compared with the blank group(P＜0.05),the warm acupuncture and moxibustion group and the inhibitor group had lower scores compared with the model group(P＜0.05).The immunohistochemistry,immunofluorescence and Western blot revealed that the expression levels of ASC,Caspase-1 and P2X7 were notably higher in the model group than in the blank group(P＜0.05);compared with the model group,the warm acupuncture and moxibustion group and the inhibitor group exhibited significant decreases in the expressions of ASC,Caspase-1 and P2X7(P＜0.05).The warm acupuncture and moxibustion group and the inhibitor group exhibited similar expressions of ASC,Caspase-1 and P2X7,with no notable differences between them(P all＞0.05).Conclusion Warm acupuncture and moxibustion can alle-viate the cartilage damage of rabbit KOA,which mechanism may be related to the decreased expressions of ASC,Caspase-1,P2X7 and the inhibition of chondrocyte pyroptosis.
warm acupuncture and moxibustionknee osteoarthritisapoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-activating recruitment domaincysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-1purinergic recep-tor P2X ligand-gated ion channel 7
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