Study on compound Duzhong Jiangu granule in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis based on transcriptome analysis strategy

Background: Based on the whole animal model, to study the efficacy of Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granule in the treatment of primary osteoarthritis (POA) model of postmenopausal kidney deficiency type in Hartley female guinea pigs after ovariectomy, and the correlation between gene expression of bone marrow tissue, cartilage tissue, and knee osteoarthritis. Methods: 38 3-months-old Hartley female guinea pigs after one week of adaptive feeding were weighed about 400 g ± 20 g, numbered, and sorted by ear tag. Six of them were selected as normal groups by looking up random number tables. The remainder were removed from the bilateral ovaries to construct the postmenopausal kidney deficiency model, and castrated guinea pigs were used to construct the postmenopausal kidney deficiency POA model. After the modeling cycle, a guinea pig from the blank group and a guinea pig from the model group were sacrificed and the right knee was observed. The model was established and the experiments continued. There were five guinea pigs in the blank group, and the remaining model guinea pigs were randomly divided into model control group, high-dose group of compound Duzhong Jiangu granules, middle-dose group of compound Duzhong Jiangu granules, low-dose group of compound Duzhong Jiangu granules and design group, with 5 guinea pigs in each group. Blanks and model groups were given a cellulose sodium solution by gavage. The guinea pigs were sacrificed after 30 days of intragastric administration. The left knee cartilage and bone marrow of the blank group, model group, middle dose group, and high dose group of compound Duzhong Jiangu granule were collected and applied to transcriptome sequencing, and the sequencing data were analyzed, including differential gene expression analysis, functional enrichment analysis of database established by Gene Ontology federation (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genome (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. The complete specimens of the right knee joint were collected, and the morphological changes of the cartilage of the right knee joint in each group were observed by saffron rapid green staining, and the subchondral bone was quantitatively analyzed by Micro CT so that the expression of TRAF6, MIP-1β and IL-1β protein in NF-kappa B signaling pathway was detected by Western Blot technique (WB). Results: The results of Safranin Fast Green staining showed that Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules could effectively reduce the degree of morphological damage of articular cartilage in guinea pigs with the POA model. According to the analysis results of the subchondral bone structure under Micro CT, Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules can improve the bone condition of the POA model, thus delaying the process of degenerative changes of the knee joint. From the results of transcriptome analysis, Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules can inhibit the expression of related genes in POA model guinea pigs. According to the results of Wester Bolt verification, Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules can effectively improve knee osteoarthritis. Conclusions: The effect of Compound Duzhong Jiangu Granules on OA is obvious, and its mechanism may be related to the expression of genes GZMK, Jchain, igkc, IGHV3-74, IGHV3-11, IGHV4-1, CCL5, and IGKV1–39.