Bioinformatics analysis and vivo experiment of Artemisia argyi essential oil for the treatment of pressure ulcer by modulating Wnt/β-catenin pathway

Abstract

Background Pressure ulcer (PU) is a complex inflammatory disease caused by a variety of factors, which seriously affect the quality of life of patients and are an urgent challenge for clinical medical and nursing care. Artemisia argyi essential oil (AAEO) possesses a wide range of pharmacological properties in antibacterial, antioxidation, and anti-inflammation. To observe the effect of AAEO via modulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in accelerating the PU wound healing in rats. Materials and methods Bioinformatics methods were used for differential analysis of pressure ulcer genes. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs), Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, and protein-protein interaction networks were established to find the potential mechanism of PU. Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 10) were randomly divided into Control group, Model group, and AAEO group. Rats in the AAEO groups with PU were treated with AAEO topical daily for 10 days. To investigate how AAEO treats pressure ulcers, researchers used HE staining, Masson's staining, quantitative real-time PCR, and Western blotting analysis. Results A total of 26 upregulated and 69 downregulated genes were identified through intersected genes of Wnt/β-catenin pathway with GSE137897. GO analysis revealed that main items involved in inflammation response with the differentially expressed genes. Six hub genes with high degrees of connectivity were picked out, namely WNT3A, GSK3B, FZD1, BMP4, AXIN2, and SOX9 in the PPI network. In addition, rats experiment found that AAEO promotes wound healing by inhibiting apoptosis and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. The INOS and IL-16 levels showed that AAEO significantly reduces inflammation in PU tissues. The Bax, Bcl-2, and Caspase-9 levels showed that AAEO inhibits apoptosis. We also observed that AAEO increase the expression of gsk3b, a downstream protein of the pathway, leading to the inhibition of β-catenin expression levels in vivo. Conclusions The study indicated that AAEO accelerates PU wound healing via mediating Wnt/β-catenin pathway.