PMID- 34421630
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20210824
IS  - 1664-042X (Print)
IS  - 1664-042X (Electronic)
IS  - 1664-042X (Linking)
VI  - 12
DP  - 2021
TI  - Efficacy and Mechanism of Electroacupuncture Treatment of Rabbits With Different 
      Degrees of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Study Based on Synovial Innate Immune Response.
PG  - 642178
LID - 10.3389/fphys.2021.642178 [doi]
LID - 642178
AB  - Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic degenerative bone and joint disease, which 
      is often clinically manifested as pain, joint swelling, and deformity. Its 
      pathological manifestations are mainly synovial inflammation and cartilage 
      degeneration. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of electro-acupuncture 
      (EA) on model rabbits with varying degrees of KOA and to study the mechanism of 
      EA on KOA based on the innate immune response. Mild and moderate rabbit KOA 
      models were established using a modified Hluth method, and EA was given to both 
      the mild and moderate model groups. The Lequesne-MG index was used to evaluate 
      the behavioral changes in the rabbits before and after EA treatment. 
      Morphological changes in the synovial membrane and cartilage of each group were 
      observed by H&E staining. The Mankin scoring standard and the Krenn scoring 
      standard were used to score the pathology of the cartilage tissue and synovial 
      tissue, respectively. The inflammatory factors and metalloproteinases were 
      detected in the serum of each group by ELISA. The protein and messenger RNA 
      (mRNA) expressions of important elements related to Toll-like receptors 
      (TLRs)-mediated innate immune response in the synovial tissue were detected by 
      Western blot and quantitative PCR (qPCR). The Lequesne-MG index score of the 
      rabbits gradually increased with the modeling prolonged but decreased 
      significantly after EA treatment, indicating that EA has a better effect on 
      alleviating the pain and improving the dysfunction. The morphological analysis 
      showed that the inflammation of and the damage to the synovial membrane and the 
      cartilage tissue gradually deteriorated with the modeling prolonged. However, the 
      synovial membrane inflammation was significantly relieved after EA treatment, and 
      the cartilage injury showed signs of repair. The ELISA analysis showed that, with 
      the modeling prolonged, the serum-related inflammatory factors and mechanism of 
      metalloproteinases gradually increased but decreased after EA treatment. The 
      tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and matrix 
      metalloproteinase3 (MMP3) of EA1 group were significantly lower than those of EA2 
      group. Both Western blot and qPCR results showed that the protein and mRNA 
      expressions of the elements related to the innate immune response in the synovial 
      membrane increased gradually with the modeling prolonged, but decreased 
      significantly after EA treatment. Additionally, the expression of some components 
      in EA1 group was significantly lower than that in EA2 group. These results 
      confirm that synovial inflammation gradually aggravated with time from the early 
      to mid-stage of KOA. EA alleviated the inflammation and histological changes in 
      KOA rabbits by inhibiting the TLRs-mediated innate synovial immune response. This 
      suggests that using EA in the early stage of KOA may achieve a desirable 
      efficacy.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2021 Ruan, Wang, Ma, Zhang, Yang, Wang, Xie and Yin.
FAU - Ruan, Anmin
AU  - Ruan A
AD  - Department of Orthopedics, Beijing Longfu Hospital, Beijing, China.
FAU - Wang, Qingfu
AU  - Wang Q
AD  - Department of Tendon and Injury, The Third Hospital Affiliated to Beijing 
      University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
FAU - Ma, Yufeng
AU  - Ma Y
AD  - Department of Tendon and Injury, The Third Hospital Affiliated to Beijing 
      University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
FAU - Zhang, Dong
AU  - Zhang D
AD  - Department of General Surgery, The Second Hospital Affiliated to Beijing 
      University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
FAU - Yang, Lili
AU  - Yang L
AD  - Department of Orthopedics, Beijing Longfu Hospital, Beijing, China.
FAU - Wang, Zhongpeng
AU  - Wang Z
AD  - Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, The Third Hospital Affiliated to Beijing 
      University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
FAU - Xie, Qi
AU  - Xie Q
AD  - Graduate School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
FAU - Yin, Yueshan
AU  - Yin Y
AD  - Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, The Third Hospital Affiliated to Beijing 
      University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210805
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Front Physiol
JT  - Frontiers in physiology
JID - 101549006
PMC - PMC8375319
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - electro-acupuncture
OT  - innate immune response
OT  - knee osteoarthritis
OT  - mechanism research
OT  - signaling pathway
COIS- The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any 
      commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential 
      conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2021/08/24 06:00
MHDA- 2021/08/24 06:01
PMCR- 2021/08/05
CRDT- 2021/08/23 06:26
PHST- 2020/12/15 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/06/04 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/08/23 06:26 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/08/24 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/08/24 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/08/05 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.3389/fphys.2021.642178 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Front Physiol. 2021 Aug 5;12:642178. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.642178. eCollection 
      2021.