Effect of Moxibustion on the Intestinal Flora of Rats with Knee Osteoarthritis Induced by Monosodium Iodoacetate

Abstract

<jats:p>In this study, a knee osteoarthritis (KOA) rat model induced by monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) was used to study the effect of moxibustion on improving knee cartilage damage and its effect on the intestinal flora. The experimental rats were divided into the normal group (N), model group (M), moxibustion treatment group (MS), and diclofenac sodium treatment group (DS). After 4 weeks, cartilage pathological damage in the knee joint was evaluated using hematoxylin-eosin and safranin O-fast green staining analysis. ELISAs and Western blots were used to detect the expression levels of IL-1<jats:italic>β</jats:italic> and TNF-<jats:italic>α</jats:italic> in the serum and cartilage, respectively. The total DNA of the fecal samples was extracted and subjected to high-throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene to analyze the changes in the intestinal flora. In the model group, the cartilage was obviously damaged, the expression levels of IL-1<jats:italic>β</jats:italic> and TNF-<jats:italic>α</jats:italic> in the serum and cartilage were increased, and the abundance and diversity of the intestinal flora were decreased. Moxibustion treatment significantly improved the cartilage damage and reduced the concentration of inflammatory factors in the serum and cartilage. The high-throughput sequencing results showed that compared to the model group, the moxibustion treatment regulated some specific species in the intestinal microorganisms rather than the <jats:italic>α</jats:italic> diversity. In conclusion, our findings suggest that moxibustion treatment may work through two aspects in rats. On one hand, it directly acts on knee cartilage to promote repair, and on the other hand, it regulates the composition of the intestinal flora and reduces the production of inflammatory factors.</jats:p>

Indole-3-propionic acid alleviates chondrocytes inflammation and osteoarthritis via the AhR/NF-κB axis

“…Recent studies have demonstrated that Lactobacillus genus was decreased in OA and Lactobacillus genus supplementation improved WOMAC and visual analog scale scores (Chen et al 2021 ; Bonato et al 2022 ; Lei et al 2017 ). Oral administration of Lactobacillus species was effective in alleviating OA symptoms, cartilage destruction, proinflammatory cytokines and macrophage infiltration in a couple of studies (Lei et al 2017 ; So et al 2011 ; Coulson et al 2013 ; Collins et al 2015 ; Chen et al 2020 ), but the specific therapeutic mechanisms remain to be further investigated. IPA, the major metabolite of Lactobacillus, has anti-inflammatory effects in multiple disease models.…”

Miya Improves Osteoarthritis Characteristics via the Gut-Muscle-Joint Axis According to Multi-Omics Analyses

“…A previous study reported that high-fat diets contribute to severe cartilage degeneration and decrease the diversity of the GM in mice, and that wheel running exercise relieved cartilage degeneration and increased GM diversity induced by high-fat diets ( Li et al, 2021 ). Chen et al also found that the abundance and diversity of the GM were reduced in OA, and moxibustion showed a favorable regulatory effect on the GM ( Chen et al, 2020 ). These results suggest that MY can improve intestinal health in patients with OA by increasing GM diversity.…”

Research Trends of Moxibustion Therapy for Pain Treatment Over the Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Recent research has shown that it directly promotes knee cartilage repair, in the meanwhile regulates the composition of the intestinal flora to prohibit inflammatory factor release. 23 Some RCTs have suggested that moxibustion therapy is a safe choice for treatment. 9 , 24 , 25 However, the top-cited were the standard of meta-analysis, indicating that the number of RCTs in this field is relatively limited and the quality needs to be improved.…”