| Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways which involves a variety of inflammatory cells and has complicated pathogenesis. Chinese traditional medicine considers it as a "xiao" category. Phlegm retention plays a dominant role in the development of its process. Zhongjing proposed the general principle that when one has phlegm retention, one should be treated with warm herbs, which gave lots of guidances to both internal and externaltreatments. Under this guidance, we discuss the effect mechanisms of acupoint application on established animal model of asthma, hoping to broaden the field of basic research for external treatment.Objective By observing eosinophil apoptosis, expressions of apoptosis-related genes bax and bcl-2in lung tissue of allergic asthma guinea pigs, changes of serum interleukin-4and IFN-y contents, as well as the expressions of transcription factors T-betmRNA and GATA-3mRNA, we will preliminarily explore the effcet mechanisms of point application to airway inflammation in allergic asthma.Methods30Hartley guinea pigs were randomly divided into normal group, model group, acupoint Application group, non-acupoint application group and positive control group, six for each group. Inhalation and intraperitoneal injection of ovalbumin sensitization were carried out to estabilish guinea pig model of allergic asthma. The second day of successful modeling, animals in point application group were treated by placing Chinese medicine at the point Feishu xue、danzhong xue and Dingchuan xue for4hours a day,lasting for10days in all. Animals in positive control group were treated with aminophylline applicator in the same way as point application group. Animals in non-acupoint applicator group were treated with drugs at the places lcm next to Feishu, danzhong and Dinchuan. Points applicator group.Normal group and asthma model group were not treated. At the end of treatment, we observed animals’weight variation, behaviors and HE staining pathological changes of lung tissue sections.we used Tunel assay to test EOS apoptosis, immunohistochemical assay to test the expressions of apoptosis re-lated genes bax and bcl-2in lung tissue.We detected the content of serum IL-4and IFN-y by ELISA method and adopted RT-PCR to detect expressions of transcription factors T-bet and GATA-3mRNA. All data were shown in the form of(x±s) and analyzed with one-way ANOVA by SPSS18.0,a=0.05.Results1. Influences on general situation and pathological changes in each group of guinea pigsCompared with the model group, weights of acupoint application acupoint group and non-acupoint group increased to different degrees, and the behavioral score significantly reduced HE staining showed that in model group, bronchial mucosa epithelial cells fell off, goblet cells increased and inflammatory cells infiltrated, which took a turn for the better in acupoint application group, non-acupoint applicator group and positive control group.2. Influences on EOS apoptosis in guinea pigsCompared to model group, EOS count in positive control group, acupoint group and non-acupoint group, were significantly decreased, but EOS apoptotic index of these three groups showed a remarkable increase.The expression of bcl-2in acupoint group, non-acupoint group and positive control group decreased compared with model group, and the bax expression rose with statistically significant difference.3. Immune adjustment mechanisms of acupoint application to allergic asthmaIn acupuncture point group, non-acupuncture group and positive control group, the serum IL-4contents dropped significantly compared with model group.In acupuncture point group, non-acupuncture group and positive control group, the serum IFN-gamma increased significantly compared with the model group, and that of acupuncture group was more higher than acupuncture group.Conclusions1. Guided by the phlegm treatment, using acupoint sticking therapy for allergic asthma can achieve good effects.2. Acupoint application can improve the symptoms of the acute episode of asthma, and relieve the airway inflammation.3. Acupoint application can increase the expression of bax and suppress that of bcl-2, to achieve the goal of promoting EOS apoptosis.4. Acupoint application can correct the Thl/Th2imbalance state by regulating the expressions of transcription factors T-bet and GATA-3, which affect the secretion of IL-4and IFN-γ. |
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