Effect of Jiangu granule on the expression of AQP3 in articular cartilage of rats with knee osteoarthritis / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effect and significance of Jiangu granule on the expression of aquaporin 3 (AQP3) in articular cartilage of knee osteoarthritis (OA) rats.Methods Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into sham operation group, model group, and Jiangu granule treatment group.The treatment group was divided into Jiangu granule high dose, medium dose, and low dose groups, with 12 rats in each group.The osteoarthritis model was made by injecting 4％ papain and 0.03 mol/L Lcysteine mixture into the knee joint.Sham-operated group and model group received normal feeding every day.Treatment group (high, medium, and low dose groups), the next day after the completion of the mod el, were given different dose Jiangu granule by gavage twice a day for 4 weeks.After treatment, the ratswere executed uniformly, using general optical microscope and the pathological section of histology to observe the articular cartilage damage.The expression of AQP3 in articular cartilage of rats was detected by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot.Results The articular cartilage destruction of Jiangu granule treatment group was significantly less than that of the model group (P ＜ 0.05).The mRNA and protein expression levels of AQP3 in model group was significantly higher than that in the sham operation group (P ＜ 0.05).OA rats with Jiangu granule after 4 weeks treatment, the mRNA and protein expression levels of AQP3 in articular cartilage were decreased significantly.Jiangu granule in each sub group relative to the model group had statistical significance (P ＜ 0.05), and the high dose group was decreased significantly.Conclusions Jiangu granule can reduce the expressions of AQP3 in OA articular cartilage of rats and alleviate the swelling of joints, which may have protective effects on articular cartilage.