Anovel kidney yang deficient asthma rat model based on the four traditional Chinese medical diagnostic methods and the Rho/Rock signal pathway

ABSTRACT

Objective: Traditional Chinese medicine research on asthma has increasingly become a hotspot; however, its mechanism of treatment remains unclear as a result of the lack of effective asthma TCM animal model .Therefore, this study aimed to establish and evaluate a novel asthma rat model of kidney yang deficiency.
Methods: 30 male SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: a control group, an asthma model group and a kidney yang deficient asthma model group. There were 10 rats in each group. An asthma rat model of kidney yang deficiency was established via a combination of adenine and ovalbumin (OVA) atomization. The rat asthma model was established via direct trigger by ovalbumin atomization and saline lavage. Control group rats were administered with saline lavage and saline atomization. Throughout the whole process, morphology, behavior and other changes were observed, respectively. Body weight, paw temperature, axillary temperature,Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome scoring,r values of the paws and tails, expressions of RhoA protein and Rock2 protein were all recorded as well.
Results: Asthma model group and kidney yang deficient asthma model group rats exhibited such obvious symptoms as cough, sneezing, and irritability. Paw and tail colors of kidney yang deficient asthma model group rats appeared grossly pale to the naked eye. The skin of these rats was cool to the touch and they appeared to lack energy. TCM syndrome scores increased progressively across groups (control: 5.2±0.79; asthma model: 9.6±0.70; kidney yang-deficient asthma: 16.7±0.95), with significant differences between each group (p<0.05).The paw and axillary temperatures of rats in the kidney yang deficient asthma model group were lower than those of the rats in the control group and asthma group(P<0.05). During the process of model establishment, growth rate of body weight significantly decreased in the kidney yang deficient asthma model group. The body weights of rats in the kidney yang deficient asthma model group were obviously less than those of rats in the control (P<0.01). After the withdrawal of adenine, the weights of rats were still significantly lower. In the kidney yang deficient asthma model group, the r values of the paws and tails were lower than those of rats in the asthma group and control group(P<0.05). The results of immunofluorescence, Western-blotting and RT-PCR revealed that RhoA and Rock2 proteins were significantly increased in rats of the kidney yang deficient asthma model group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: This study established a new asthma rat model of kidney yang deficiency through the combination of adenine lavage and ovalbumin atomization. According to the four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine and the rho/rock signal pathway, symptoms of kidney yang deficient asthma rats were evaluated. Additionally, the kidney yang deficient asthma rat model was shown to be successful.