Yang Yong-Hui, Liu Tian-Hao, Zhang Li-da, Chen Zhu-Yue, Huang Xiao-Shuang
The Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 45 Shihe Road, Hefei 230061, Anhui, China.
Chinese Medicine College, Jinan University, 601 Huangpu West Avenue, Guangzhou 510632, Guangdong, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019 Jun 16;2019:7164916. doi: 10.1155/2019/7164916. eCollection 2019.
Needle knife therapy, a form of acupuncture and moxibustion, has been widely used in the clinical treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). However, the mechanism is not clear. Therefore, we studied the mechanisms of action of needle knife intervention on KOA in rabbits, with the PERK-eIF2-CHOP pathway as a starting point, in order to determine the mechanism underlying knee joint chondrocyte apoptosis. Apoptosis and ultrastructural changes in the articular cartilage were examined by pathological study and transmission electron microscopy, and PERK, eIF2, and CHOP mRNA and protein levels were detected by qRT-PCR and western blot, respectively. PERK, eIF2, and CHOP protein levels were significantly higher in the model group than in the normal group ( < 0.01) and were considerably downregulated in the needle knife and the medicine groups compared to the model group ( < 0.01). The eIF2, p-eIF2, and CHOP protein levels were not significantly different between the needle knife and medicine groups. The PERK, eIF2, and CHOP mRNA levels in the drug group were higher than those in the needle knife group ( < 0.01). Needle knife therapy can regulate PERK-eIF2-CHOP signaling pathway, which could be one of the mechanisms by which it affects chondrocyte apoptosis in KOA rabbits.
小针刀疗法作为针灸的一种形式，已广泛应用于膝关节骨关节炎（KOA）的临床治疗。然而，其作用机制尚不清楚。因此，我们以PERK-eIF2-CHOP信号通路为切入点，研究小针刀干预对兔KOA的作用机制，以确定膝关节软骨细胞凋亡的潜在机制。通过病理研究和透射电子显微镜观察关节软骨的凋亡和超微结构变化，分别采用qRT-PCR和western blot检测PERK、eIF2和CHOP的mRNA和蛋白水平。模型组PERK、eIF2和CHOP蛋白水平显著高于正常组（<0.01），与模型组相比，小针刀组和药物组的上述蛋白水平均显著下调（<0.01）。小针刀组和药物组之间eIF2、p-eIF2和CHOP蛋白水平无显著差异。药物组PERK、eIF2和CHOP mRNA水平高于小针刀组（<0.01）。小针刀疗法可调节PERK-eIF2-CHOP信号通路，这可能是其影响KOA兔软骨细胞凋亡的机制之一。
