Moxibustion pretreatment inhibits RhoA/ROCK signaling to prevent lung inflammation in asthmatic rats

Objective:To determine whether pretreatment moxibustion prevents asthma by down-regulating the lung RhoA/ROCK pathway in rats with bronchial asthma and benignly mediating the lung inflammatory response.Methods:Twenty Sprague Dawley(SD)rats were randomly divided into normal control group(C),asthma model group(M),suspended moxibustion 40 min+asthma group(SM40),and suspended moxibustion 10 min+asthma group(SM10).Ovalbumin was used as a sensitizer.The two moxibustion groups completed moxibustion treatment lasted 40 min or 10 min respectively 30 min before modeling onset,and was repeated five times in each modeling cycle,for a total of 15 times.Samples were harvested on day 30.Results:Lung impairment was significant in the M group,whereas pretreatment with SM10 and SM40 dramatically attenuated the injury.After modeling,mRNA expression of RhoA and ROCK2 in the lung tissue was significantly higher than that in C group(both P<0.001),resulting in significant increase in protein levels of IL-17 A(P<0.001).Significant decrease in RhoA and ROCK2 mRNA expression was seen in the SM10(P<0.001,P<0.01)and SM40(both P<0.001)groups compared to that with M rats.The differential trend in the SM40 group was more evident than that in the SM10 group.Regarding IL-10 or IL-17 A protein concentration,an upregulation or down-regulation was observed in both SM10(P<0.05,P<0.01)and SM40 groups(both P<0.001)compared to that with the M group.Conclusions:Moxibustion pretreatment significantly prevented pulmonary inflammation in asthmatic rats,potentially via inhibition of the RhoA/ROCK pathway.The efficacty of moxibustion appeared to be significantly associated with the duration of intervention with moxibustion.