| ObjectiveTo investigate the mechanism of airway inflammation in asthma rats treated by astragalusinjection injected on acupoint and provide theoretical basis for clinical application, we observethe impact of IFN-γ/Il-4, cytokine form Th1/Th2, balance and the phosphorylation of p38MAPK(mitogen-activated protein kinase. MAPK) through asthma rats acupoint injected by astragalusinjection.Methods1. The40SPF SD rats were randomly divided into four groups of10. Group A was thenormal group; group B was the asthma model group; group C was the intraperitoneal injection ofdexamethasone; group D was the group that acupoint injected by astragalus injection.2. The1stand8thday：for the sake of sensitization, each rat of group B, group C and group Dintraperitoneal injected by ovalbumin (OVA) and aluminum hydroxide mixture. The dose of eachinjection was1ml containing100mg OVA and100mg aluminum hydroxide. Group A wasinjected by NS and aluminum hydroxide.3. From14thday to28thday: each rat of group B, group C and group D placed in a sealed boxultrasonic atomized by OVA solution for30min once a day. For group A, OVA was replaced byNS.4. From19thto28thday:30min before atomization, each rat of group D was injected byastragalus injection on Feishu and Shenshu once a day, each rat of group C was injected bydexamethasone, each rat of group A and group B was injected by NS.5.24hours after the last atomization, the rat serum, lung and bronchoalveolar lavagefluid(BALF) were collected. The level of IL-4and IFN-γ in BALF and serum were detected byenzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA), phosphorylated p38MAPK was detected by western-blot and Immunohistochemistry, the lung tissue histopathology was processed by H-E.Results1. The level of phosphorylated p38MAPK in asthma rats was significantly higher thanother groups (p＜0.05). The expression of phosphorylated p38MAPK in group C (rats injectedby dexamethasone) was higher than that in group D(rats injected by astragalus injection inacupoint)(p＜0.05). The level in group D was higher than that in group A2. Compared with the other groups, the level of IL-4in BALF and serum that in group Bwere increased, while the level of IFN-γ were decreased. The level of IL-4in BALF and serumthat in group D were higher than that in group C, and were lower than group B, while the level ofIFN-γ were in contrast.3. Correlation Analysis: the levels of IFN-γ in serum(r=-0.641，p＜0.01) and BALF (r=-0.670，p＜0.01)were negatively correlated with the levels of phosphorylated p38MAPK in lungtissue that was positively correlated with the levels of IL-4in serum(r=0.555，p＜0.01) andBALF(r=0.704，p＜0.01).4. The result of H-E show that there were significant airway edema and lymphocyticinfiltration in asthma rats, while the circumstances was better in rats that injected bydexamethasone and acupoint injected by astragalus injection. Immunohistochemistry show thatphosphorylated p38MAPK mainly expressed in bronchial epithelial cells and alveolar epithelialcells. Asthma group were strongly positive, which was higher than the other groups (p <0.05).Astragalus comparison group and dexamethasone group had no significant difference (p=0.143),but the two groups were higher than the normal group (p <0.05).ConclusionThe IFN-γ/IL-4, cytokines from Th1/Th2, balance disorders could be rectified and theairway inflammation could be reduced after being treated by astragalus injection injected onacupoint, and this may be one of the mechanism of astragalus injection injected on acupoint asthe treatment of asthma.Astragalus injection injected on acupoint can inhibit p38MAPK phosphorylation whichplays an important role in the production of inflammatory mediators in the course of asthma.Astragalus injection injected on acupoint can reduce the expression of p38MAPK phosphorylation and the effect is similar or slightly stronger than dexamethasone, but the effectof IFN-γ/IL-4imbalance correction is weaker than dexamethasone, but further studies should beto verify... |
PDF Full Text Request