Effect of acupuncture on corneal morphology and nuclear factor κB signaling pathway of dry eye rabbits
10.13389/j.cnki.rao.2024.0034
- VernacularTitle:针刺对干眼兔角膜形态学及角膜组织NF-κB信号通路的影响
- Author:
Ning DING
1
;
Qingbo WEI
;
Chengyong LIU
;
Weimin DENG
;
Qing XU
;
Weiping GAO
Author Information
1. 210008 江苏省南京市,南京中医药大学
- Keywords:
acupuncture;
dry eye;
corneal morphology;
nuclear factor κB signaling pathway signaling pathway
- From:
Recent Advances in Ophthalmology
2024;44(3):173-177
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective To investigate the effect of acupuncture on the morphology of the dry eye rabbit's cornea and the nuclear factor κB(NF-κB)signaling pathway of the corneal tissue to analyze the mechanism of acupuncture on dry eyes.Methods Twenty-four healthy New Zealand rabbits,without restriction on sex,were randomly divided into four groups,including a blank group,a model group,an acupuncture group,and a sham acupuncture group,with 6 in each group.Rabbits in the blank group were not treated;rabbits in the other three groups were treated with scopolamine hydro-bromide 2.0 mg·kg-1 by subcutaneous injection at 8:00,11:00,14:00 and 18:00 each day for 35 consecutive days un-til the end of the experiment.Rabbits in the sham acupuncture group were treated with sham acupuncture on the 22nd day after successful modeling by quickly pricking acupoints(Jingming BL1,Cuanzhu BL2,Sizhukong SJ23,Taiyang EX-HN5 and Tongziliao GB1)with a blunt acupuncture needle,once a day,for a total of 14 days.Rabbits in the acupuncture group were treated with acupuncture at the same acupoints as the sham acupuncture group after successful modeling.The corneal fluorescence staining was conducted on Days 0,21,28 and 35 after modeling.On Day 35,corneal confocal microscope ex-aminations were conducted.Then,the rabbits were sacrificed,the corneal morphological changes were observed by light microscope and transmission electron microscope,and the expression of corneal NF-κB protein was detected by Western blot.Results Compared with the model group,the score of rabbit corneal fluorescein staining in the acupuncture group and blank group decreased on the 28th and 35th days after modeling,and the differences were statistically significant(all P＜0.05).The results of the confocal microscope examination on Day 35 after modeling showed that,compared with other groups,there were a large number of globular immune cells and activated stromal cells with unclear boundaries and irregu-lar sizes in the stromal layer and inflammation in the area with irregular intercellular space in the model group and the sham acupuncture group.In the acupuncture group,the morphology of stromal layer cells improved,the cells were slightly acti-vated,and there were no obvious abnormalities in the corneal nerve morphology.On the 35th day after modeling,the re-sults of the light microscope showed that,the surface of the corneal tissue in the model group and the sham acupuncture group showed hyperkeratinized flat epithelial cells,lymphocyte infiltration,increased number of focal epithelial cell layers,and epithelial cell detachment.In the acupuncture group,there were 4-6 layers of epithelial cells in the corneal epitheli-um,and epithelial shedding decreased.In addition,the lymphocyte infiltration decreased compared with the model group.On the 35th day after modeling,the results of the transmission electron microscope showed that abnormal microvilli oc-curred and epithelial cells were absent in the corneal epithelial cells of rabbits in the model group and the sham acupuncture group,the cell space was widened,the rough endoplasmic reticulum was severely expanded,and desmosomes were dis-banded with mitochondrial swelling.In the acupuncture group,the microvilli structure of epithelial cells was sparse and short,local deletion was still observed,the rough endoplasmic reticulum was slightly expanded,and no obvious swelling of mitochondria was observed.On the 35th day after modeling,the Western blot examination results showed that,compared with the blank group,the expression of p-NF-κB p65 was up-regulated in both the model group and sham acupuncture group(both P＜0.05);compared with the model group and sham acupuncture group,the expression of p-NF-κB p65 in the acupuncture group was down-regulated(both P＜0.05).Conclusion Acupuncture can inhibit the NF-κB signaling path-way to play an anti-inflammatory role and relieve corneal inflammation and injury of dry eye rabbit models.
