The Study On The Relationship Between TCM "the Spleen's Governing Transportation And Transformation Of Dampness" And Aquaporins (AQP3, AQP4)

The spleen and stomach are the core of the theory of Zang-Fu in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), governing transportation and transformation. According to the modern medicine theory, spleen (stomach) is a physiology and (or) the pathology concept, which is the primarily multi- systems function comprehensive unit of digesting system.Nearly 30 years, the research on spleen-deficiency syndrome and "the spleen's governing transportation and transformation, especially of water and food" has been emphasized, the research on "the spleen's governing transportation and transformation of dampness" can promulgate its physiological mechanism and the molecular biology foundation, further supplemented " the spleen's governing transportation and transformation research.Chapter 1: Literature ResearchThe spleen and stomach are the hub of water metabolism, which can be summarized by "the spleen's governing transportation and transformation of dampness" , including two aspects: "transforming" and "transporting" . Through "the spleen' transforming ", the spleen can transform the liquid state ingredient of water and food into body fluid , the body fluid can be transformed into saliva, perspiration, urine, digesting fluid and other physiology liquids. Through "spleen's transporting", body fluids and the unnecessary water can be transported to the lung, the kidney and the whole body. The function of "the spleen's governing transportation and transformation of dampness" is an important constituent of the function of "the spleen's governing transportation and transformation " , it canprevent body fluid from stagnation, prevent the pathological production such as wet, phlegm, drink and so on , and play a vital role on maintaining fluids balance in vivo.Aquaporins (AQPs) is the integrated protein in the biomembrane to transport water specifically. Most of them are selectively distributed on the epithelial cells which are related with the reabsorption and secretion of water and fluid, and have a decisive action on maintaining the water balance of cells, tissues, organs and the whole body. AQPs has a close relationship with water metabolism, and with the lung, spleen, kidney and so on of TCM also. If the expression of AQPs in the cell membrane of different organizes is higher or lower than the normal level, the water' s secretion or absorption can be affected, and the water' s balance of partial or the whole body occurrences will be disorded.Therefore, through center link of the body fluids metabolism and water balance, there' re must exist certain relationship between "the spleen' s governing transportation and transformation of dampness" and AQPs. The normal expression of AQPs may be the molecular basis of "the spleen' s governing transportation and transformation of dampness" , while the abnormal expression of AQP may be one of mechanisms of "Pi Wei Shi Re" "Pi Xu Shi Kun" "Han Shi Kun Pi" "Wei Yin Bu Zu" Syndrome.In recent years, people had done many beneficial exploration on AQPs from the traditional Chinese medicine, but need further study.Chapter 2: experimental study on ClinicIn this experiment, the fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) was used to study the relationship between aquaporins (AQP3, AQP4) and different syndromes of TCM and various degree "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome in chronic superficial gastritis , take the normal group as the comparison. At the same time, symptoms and signs which caused by "the spleen' s losing transportation and transformation of dampness" was taken as a group of variables, AQP3 and AQP4 as another group of variables, then the canonical correlation analysis was adopted.The diagnosis criteria, including criteria, excluding criteria, patients' resource were the same. All patients came from the clinic and in-patient- department of the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou University of TCM. Normal people were taken as the control group, which werethe volunteer undergraduate from Guangzhou University of TCM. All participator gave informed consent.The First Experiment: the relationship between the gene expression of aquaporins (AQP3, AQP4) and different syndrome in chronic superficial gastritisObjective: the group of "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome was 24 cases, and that of "Pi Xu Shi Kun" syndrome was 10 cases, that of "Han Shi Kun Pi" syndrome was 10 cases, that of "Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome was 8 cases, and that of normal people was 8 cases.Methods: the mucosa of upper stomach was collected under the help of gastroscope and stored in liquid nitrogen. The gene expression of gastric tissue was examined by FQ-PCR.Results: The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 of "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome group was higher than that of "Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome group and normal people group (p<0. 05;0. 01), The expression of AQP3 of "Pi Xu Shi Kun" syndrome group and "Han Shi Kun Pi" syndrome group was higher than that of "Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome group (p<0.05;0.01), The expression of AQP4 of "Pi Xu Shi Kun" syndrome group was higher than that of "Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome group (p<0.05), Although the mean of AQP4 of "Han Shi Kun Pi" syndrome group was higher than that of "Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome group, but it had no significance (p>0. 05);the mean of AQP3 and AQP4 of"Pi Xu Shi Kun" syndrome group and "Han Shi Kun Pi" syndrome group was higher than that of the normal group, it had no significance too(p>0. 05);The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 among "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome group, "Pi Xu Shi Kun" syndrome group and "Han Shi Kun Pi" syndrome group had no significance (p>0. 05);The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 between"Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome group and the normal people group had no significance (p>0.05).The Second Experiment: the relationship between the gene expression of aquaporins (AQP3, AQP4) and various degree "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome in chronic superficial gastritisObjective: The mild group of "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome was 8 cases, and that of the moderate group of "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome was 8 cases, that of the severe group of "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome was 8 cases, and that of normal people was 8 cases.Methods: the mucosa of upper stomach was collected under the help of gastroscope and stored in liquid nitrogen. The gene expression of gastric tissue was examined by FQ-PCR.Results: The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 of the moderate and severe group of "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome was higher than that of the mild group and normal people group (p<0. 05;0. 01), The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 between the mild group and normal people group had no significance (p>0. 05);Although, the mean of AQP4 of severe group was higher than that of the moderate group, but had no significance (p>0.05);The gene expression of AQP3 of severe group was higher than that of the moderate group (p<0. 05).The Third Experiment: the relationship between the gene expression of aquaporins (AQP3, AQP4) and the symptoms in chronic superficial gastritisObjective: the group of chronic superficial gastritis was 54 cases, and that of normal people was 8 cases.Methods: The data file was established by using the SPSS11. 5 software. The variable includes: The serial number, the age, the sex, the tongue substance (SZ), tongue coating thickness (STHB), the tongue coating scope (STFW), the body feels sleepy (ZTKZ), the spirt feels wearily and weak (SPFL), the character of stool (DBXZ), AQP3, AQP4. The canonical correlation analysis was adopted to analysis the rank variables between two groups..Results: There were three major symptoms correlate with AQP3 , the tendency from big to little was the tongue coating scope, tongue coating thickness and the body sleepy serious . the tendency correlate with AQP4 was the tongue coating scope, the body sleepy serious and tongue coating thickness;The tongue coating scope was the first influence to the typical variable 1 .Chapter 3 Conclusions:1. The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 of gastric mucosa was different among different syndromes of TCM of chronic superficial gastritis . The abnormal expression of AQP3 and AQP4 may be one of mechanisms of "Pi Wei Shi Re" "Pi Xu Shi Kun" "Han Shi Kun Pi" "Wei Yin Bu Zu" Syndrome.2. The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 of "Pi Wei Shi Re" "Pi Xu Shi Kun" "Han Shi Kun Pi" "Wei Yin Bu Zu" Syndrome group were higher thanthat of "Wei Yin Bu Zu" syndrome group' s and normal people group' s, it prompt that there was some kind of intrinsic relation between "dampness, fluid" of TCM and aquaporins of gastric mucosa. The high or the low expression of aquaporins was the partial performance of the whole body fluid metabolism.3. The gene expression of aquaporins among "Pi Xu Shi Kun" "Han Shi Kun Pi" "Wei Yin Bu Zu" Syndrome group had no difference, it prompt that AQP3 and AQP4 had no specificity in "Han Re Xu Shi" Syndrome of spleen and stomach.4. The gene expression of AQP3 and AQP4 of gastric mucosa was different in various degree "Pi Wei Shi Re" syndrome of chronic superficial gastritis, it prompt that there was some kind of intrinsic relation between "Shi Re" and aquaporins of gastric mucosa.5 The symptoms and signs caused by "the spleen' s losing transportation and transformation of dampness" related to the expression of AQP3 and AQP4, it prompt that there was some kind of intrinsic relation between "the spleen' s governing transportation and transformation of dampness" and aquaporins of gastric mucosa.