OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of sand therapy on the changes the femur mechanical properties of arthritis in rabbits in treatment. METHODS: Right knees of New Zealand rabbits were fixed for 6 weeks by plaster, and taken off after 6 weeks. The rabbits were divided into a sand therapy group and a control group. The sand therapy group was treated for 20 d, the control group did not receive any treatment. After 20 days, 7 workpieces were taken from the sand therapy group, and 5 from the control group. After compression experiment, sigma-epsilon curves were obtained.Finite element method was used to analyze the stress cloud and the deformation cloud. RESULTS: The sand therapy group showed high compressive strength. The stress of the control group was lower than that of the sand therapy group (P<0.05). When the surface materials were destroyed, the workpieces from the sand therapy group still bore large load, which matched the property that bone material was a typical multi-storey composite material. The stress cloud also found that the long axle suffered larger stress than the short axle, and the workpieces were more likely destroyed from the long axle. CONCLUSION Sand therapy can improve the mechanical properties of the bone.
Animals ; Femur ; physiopathology ; Finite Element Analysis ; Hot Temperature ; therapeutic use ; Knee Joint ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Osteoarthritis ; metabolism ; therapy ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Silicon Dioxide ; Stress, Mechanical ; Tensile Strength

The present paper is aimed to study the effect of sand-therapy with Uyghur medicine on biomechanical properties and femoral bone volume of the femur of osteoarthritis (OA) rabbits at two different ages. In the experiments, we injected Papain through the joint space of right knees into the bodies of New Zealand rabbits (16 in the growing group, and 16 in the mature group), and established an OA model. The 16 rabbits in the mature group were divided randomly into 2 sub-groups: 8 in control group (no sand therapy), and 8 sand-therapy group. The 16 rabbits in the growing group were divided randomly into 2 groups as well: 8 in the control group (no sand therapy), and 8 in the sand-therapy group. We carried out CT scanning four times (1 day before, 13th, 27th and 41st days after the establishment of the model, respectively). After importing the CT data to MIMICS, the different volumes of each sclerotin were recorded and change of the percentage of each sclerotins in total femur bone volume were analyzed. Finally the rabbit femurs were given three-point bending test, the elastic load and the elastic deflection were obtained and the inertia of the section, the maximum bending stresses, the bending modulus of elasticity and the structural rigidity were calculated. The experimental results showed that (1) Compared with 1 day before and 13th day after establishment of model at maturity, the cancellous bone volume increased and cortical bone volume decreased (P < 0.05), but compared with those in the control group, the cancellous bone volume of femurs decrease and cortical bone volume increased under sand-therapy (P < 0.05). Compared with those in the control group, there were no significant changes in the deflection and cross-sectional moment of inertia in the sand-therapy group (P > 0.05), but the maximum bending normal stress, maximum load, elastic modulus, and structural stiffness (P < 0.05) in the sand therapy group were larger than those in the control group. The study showed that sand-therapy in Uyghur medicine has benign effect on bone volume of the OA rabbit femur in two ages and the mechanical properties of the OA rabbit femur at the two ages induced by sand-therapy in Uyghur medicine have been improved.
Animals ; Bone Density ; Disease Models, Animal ; Elastic Modulus ; Elasticity ; Femur ; pathology ; Hot Temperature ; Osteoarthritis, Knee ; pathology ; therapy ; Rabbits

OBJECTIVETo study the effects of sand treatment on cysteine aspartate-specific proteinase-3 (Caspase-3), B-cell leukemia-lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2-associated X protein gene (Bax) in the articular cartilage of rabbit knee osteoarthritis (OA), and the apoptotic protein expression, thus providing theoretical evidence for sand treatment in Uyghur medicine.

METHODSThe OA animal model was established by fixing right hind limbs with gypsum in 22 New Zealand rabbits. Of them, 2 original model rabbits were taken as the control group, while the rest 20 were randomly divided into a free running group and a sand treatment group, 10 in each group. The healthy side of the free running group was taken as the normal control group. The sand treatment was given to those in the sand treatment group for 20 days. The expressions of Caspase-3, Bcl-2, and Bax in the cartilage cells of rabbit knee joint were measured by immunohistochemical assay. The cell apoptosis of chondrocytes was detected using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL).

RESULTSCompared with the normal control group, the positive cell number, the optical density (OD), the protein expressions of Caspase-3, Bax, and TUNEL were higher in the free running group and the sand treatment group (P < 0.01). Besides, they were obviously higher in the free running group than in the sand treatment group (P < 0.01). The positive cell number of Bcl-2 and OD value in the free running group and the sand treatment group were both lower than those of the normal control group (P < 0.01). The positive cell number was obviously higher in the sand treatment group than in the free running group (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSand treatment could inhibit the expressions of Caspase-3, Bax/Bcl-2, and TUNEL in the articular cartilage of rabbits' knee OA, which might be partial mechanisms for anti-inflammation of sand treatment.

Animals ; Apoptosis ; Cartilage, Articular ; metabolism ; Caspase 3 ; metabolism ; Chondrocytes ; metabolism ; Female ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Osteoarthritis, Knee ; metabolism ; therapy ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 ; metabolism ; Rabbits ; bcl-2-Associated X Protein ; metabolism

OBJECTIVE: To determine the heat effect on anti-inflammatory action in knee osteoarthritis in experimental rabbit during sand treatment in Uyghur medicine. METHODS: We established an indoor experimental platform for the sand treatment and collected the continuously changing data skin temperature in the rabbits and the temperature of each layer of sand.All the data were collected by the apparatus of 2700 type multichannel data collection. EMK was injected into the joint of right knees, and then the rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups: a sand therapy group, a fenbid therapy group,and a blank control group. From the 15th day after the articular injection to the 30th day,the rabbits were treated with sand once daily; fenbid, once daily; and nothing in the 3 groups,respectively. At the end of the experiment, the serum and the joint fluid of the diseased joints were obtained to test IL-1beta, TNF-alpha,and NO level; the cartilage was obtained for the histopathologic measurement. RESULTS: At the beginning,skin temperature went up,then fell down gradually. Compared with the fenbid group and the blank control group, the severity of cartilage in the sand therapy group declined significantly. The IL-beta and TNF-alpha level in the joint fluid and NO level in the serum of the sand therapy group decreased significantly. CONCLUSION The sand treatment is effective,which may be related to the decreasing of cytokine in the local joints by the heat effect.
Animals ; Hot Temperature ; therapeutic use ; Interleukin-1beta ; metabolism ; Male ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; methods ; Nitric Oxide ; blood ; Osteoarthritis ; metabolism ; therapy ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Silicon Dioxide ; Skin Temperature ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; metabolism