Correlation Between Traditional Chinese Medicine Evidence and Lipid Metabolism-Regulating Kinase in Elderly Patients
Objective:
Previous studies have indicated that an increase in the number of fat cells is associated with a decrease in bone density and bone mass. During this process, the differentiation of fat cells is closely related to the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 signaling pathway. However, research on the characteristics of lipid metabolism-regulating kinase ERK1/2 expression in osteoporosis patients with different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) patterns and their correlations is currently limited. Therefore, this study aims to explore the correlation between TCM patterns and lipid metabolism-regulating kinases in elderly osteoporosis patients.
Methods:
A total of 88 elderly osteoporosis patients with hip joint diseases who underwent total hip arthroplasty at our hospital from October 2017 to October 2022 were selected for this study, and all included patients met the complete inclusion criteria. The 88 patients were divided into groups according to TCM pattern differentiation, with 37 cases of liver and kidney deficiency pattern (Group A), 28 cases of spleen and kidney yang deficiency pattern (Group B), and 23 cases of qi stagnation and blood stasis pattern (Group C). On the second day of hospitalization, 5 ml of morning fasting venous blood was collected from patients in the three groups and used to detect and compare the differences in total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. Patients underwent 7 days of in-hospital conditioning before undergoing total hip arthroplasty. After surgery, bone specimens were collected from the femoral neck bone defect and preserved for testing. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression levels of ERK1/2 and p-ERK1/2 in bone specimens of patients with osteoporosis. Subsequently, the differences in ERK1/2 and p-ERK1/2 protein expression levels among the three groups were compared. Finally, multifactorial logistics regression analysis was used to determine the correlation between different TCM patterns and blood lipid indicators and lipid metabolism-regulating kinases.
Results:
There was no significant difference in TC levels among osteoporosis patients with TCM patterns in the three groups (all, P > .05). TG levels in Group B osteoporosis patients were significantly higher than those in Group A and Group C (all, P < .05). HDL-C levels in Group A osteoporosis patients were significantly higher than those in Group B and Group C (all, P < .05). LDL-C levels in Group C osteoporosis patients were significantly lower than those in Group A and Group B (all, P < .05). There was no significant difference in ERK1/GAPDH and ERK2/GAPDH levels among osteoporosis patients with TCM patterns in the three groups (all, P > .05). The levels of p-ERK1 and p-ERK2 in bone specimens of osteoporosis patients in Group C were significantly higher than those in Group A and Group B (all, P < .05). The level of p-ERK2 in bone specimens of osteoporosis patients in Group A was significantly higher than that in Group B (P < .05). There was a significant positive correlation between TCM pattern and TG levels in patients in Group B (r = 0.221, P < .05) and a significant negative correlation with p-ERK1/2 values (r=-0.547, P < .05).
Conclusion:
Osteoporosis patients with different TCM patterns exhibit significant differences in blood lipid indicators and lipid metabolism-regulating kinase levels. Additionally, there is a close relationship between different TCM patterns of osteoporosis and lipid metabolism-regulating kinases.
