Abstract

This study examined the effects of artesunate on pain and inflammatory response of chondrocytes in osteoarthritis in rats and its effect on toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation response gene 88/nuclear factor kappa B pathway. Thirty specific-pathogen free-grade Sprague-Dawley rats were collected and divided into 3 groups. The knee osteoarthritis model was established by intra-articular injection of papain in both osteoarthritis and artesunate groups. After 6 w of modeling in each group, the artesunate group was treated with 60 mg/kg of artesunate intraperitoneal injection, while the Sham and osteoarthritis groups were injected with an equal amount of saline for 4 w consecutively, once in a day. After 10 w of modeling, foot printing experiments were performed to analyze the behavior of murine pain hypersensitivity reaction in each group, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to determine the interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6, interleukin-10 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. The degree of articular cartilage destruction was observed under the microscope of hematoxylin and eosin staining. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation response gene 88/nuclear factor kappa B messenger ribonucleic acid while Western blotting was used to detect the proteins related to toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation response gene 88/nuclear factor kappa B signaling pathway. In rats with osteoarthritis, artesunate can reduce pain and chondrocyte inflammatory response which may be attributed to the control of the toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation response gene 88/nuclear factor kappa B pathway.