Effect of acupoint catgut embedding on p38 MAPK pathway in the lung tissue of asthmatic rats
Objective To observe the effect of catgut embedding at"Feishu"(BL13),"Dingchuan"(EX-B1)and"Danzhong"(CV17)on expression of phosphorylated p38 mitogen activated protein kinase(p-p38 MAPK),inter-leukin-4(IL-4),interferon-γ(IFN-γ)and changes of airway epithelial cells(AEC)in the lung tissue of bronchial asthma(BA)rats,so as to explore its mechanisms underlying improvement of BA.Methods Forty male Wistar rats were ran-domly and equally divided into blank control,model,dexamethasone(DEX)and catgut embedding groups.The BA model was established by intraperitoneal injection of suspension of ovalbumin and aluminum hydroxide.Rats of the DEX group received intraperitoneal injection of DEX(1.5 mg/kg),once daily for 2 weeks,and those of the catgut embedding group received catgut embedding at BL13,EX-B1 and CV17 only one time.The rats'sneezing times per miniute in each group were recorded.H.E.staining was used to observe the histopathological changes of the lung tissue under light microscope.A transmission electron microscope(TEM)was used to observe the ultrastructural changes of AEC in the lung tissue,including the thickness of bronchial wall and bronchial smooth muscle by using an image analysis software.The protein expressions of p-p38 MAPK,IL-4 and INF-γ in the lung tissue were determined using Western blot.Results Morphological observation revealed that in the model group,light microscope showed deformed and swollen bronchial tube wall with increased folds and thickened bronchial smooth muscle;and TEM showed a large num-ber of autophagy vesicles containing swollen and deformed organelles in the AEC,and apparent reduction of intracellu-lar mitochondria,these situations were obviously milder in both DEX and catgut embedding groups.Compared with the blank control group,the sneezing times,thickness of bronchial wall and bronchial smooth muscle in the model group were significantly increased(P<0.01),and the expressions of p-p38 MAPK and IL-4 in lung tissue were significantly in-creased(P<0.01),while the expression of IFN-γ was significantly decreased(P<0.01)in the model group.In compari-son with the model group,the sneezing times,thickness of bronchial wall and bronchial smooth muscle,protein ex-pressions of p-p38 MAPK and IL-4 were significantly decreased(P<0.01),while the expression of IFN-γ was obviously increased(P<0.01)in both the DEX and catgut embedding groups.Conclusion Acupoint catgut embedding can re-duce the expression of IL-4 and increase the expression of IFN-γ by inhibiting p38 MAPK signal pathway of lung tissues in BA rats,which may contribute to its effect in alleviating the degree of airway epithelial cells damage.
Acupoint catgut embeddingAsthmaPhosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinaseAirway epithelial cell
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
维普
