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Inhibitory Effect of Jinkui Shenqi Pills on Glucocorticoid-Enhanced Axial Length Elongation in Experimentally Myopic Guinea Pigs

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Abstract

Objective

To explore the underlying mechanism of inhibition by Jinkui Shenqi Pills (JKSQP) on glucocorticoid-enhanced axial length elongation in experimental lens-induced myopia (LIM) guinea pigs.

Methods

Sixty 2-week old male guinea pigs were randomly divided into 4 groups with 15 guinea pigs in each group, according to the random numbers generated by SPSS software: control, LIM, saline and JKSQP groups. The control group includes animals with no treatment, while the guinea pigs in the other 3 groups received lens-induced myopization on the right eyes throughout the experiment (for 8 weeks). The saline and JKSQP groups were given daily intraperitoneal injections of 10 mg/kg hydrocortisone for 2 consecutive weeks at the same time, and then orally administered either saline or JKSQP [13.5 g/(kg•d) for 6 consecutive weeks. Body weight, anal temperature and animal appearance were observed and recorded to evaluate the GC-associated symptoms. The ocular parameters, including refraction and axial length, were measured by streak retinoscopy and A-scan ultrasonography, respectively. The levels of plasma hormones associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA), including free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, estradiol and testosterone, were measured by radioimmunoassay, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In addition, the mRNA and protein expressions of retinal amphiregulin (AREG) was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, respectively.

Results

JKSQP effectively increased body weight and anal temperature, improved animal appearance and suppressed axial length elongation in glucocorticoid-enhanced myopic guinea pigs with normalization of 4 HPAA-associated plasma hormones (all P<0.05). The plasma level of cAMP was significantly increased, whereas the plasma level of cGMP and the mRNA and protein expressions of retinal AREG were decreased after treatment with JKSQP (all P<0.05).

Conclusion

JKSQP exhibited a significant inhibitory effect on axial length elongation with decreased expression of AREG in the retina, and normalized 4 HPAA-associated plasma hormones and the expression of cAMP and cGMP in GC-enhanced myopic guinea pigs.

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Data Availability

The datasets used during in current study can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, 250014, China

    Qian Jiang, Wen-jun Jiang, Cheng-xiu Yang, Rui-xue Zhang, Jiang-feng Wu, Bin Guo & Hong-sheng Bi

  2. Affiliated Eye Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, 250002, China

    Qian Jiang, Wen-jun Jiang, Wei Sun, Xing-rong Wang & Hong-sheng Bi

  3. Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine for Prevention and Therapy of Ocular Disease, Shandong Academy of Eye Disease Prevention and Therapy, Jinan, 250002, China

    Wen-jun Jiang, Da-dong Guo & Hong-sheng Bi

Authors
  1. Qian Jiang
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  2. Wen-jun Jiang
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  4. Rui-xue Zhang
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  5. Wei Sun
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Contributions

Jiang Q and Jiang WJ contributed equally to this study. Jiang WJ and Bi HS conceived and formulated the experiments. Jiang Q, Jiang WJ, Yang CX, Zhang RX, Sun W, Guo DD, Wu JF and Guo B performed the experiments. Jiang Q, Jiang WJ, Wu JF, and Wang XR collected and analyzed the data. Jiang WJ and Bi HS contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. Jiang Q and Jiang WJ wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hong-sheng Bi.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Additional information

Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (Nos. 2021YFC2702103 and 2019YFC1710204), the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province (No. 2019GSF108252) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2020MH393)

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Jiang, Q., Jiang, Wj., Yang, Cx. et al. Inhibitory Effect of Jinkui Shenqi Pills on Glucocorticoid-Enhanced Axial Length Elongation in Experimentally Myopic Guinea Pigs. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 29, 989–997 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-023-3738-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-023-3738-x

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