Effect of Heat Shock Preconditioning on Pressure Injury Prevention via Hsp27 Upregulation in Rat Models

Huiwen Xu; En Takashi; Jingyan Liang; Yajie Chen; Yuan Yuan; Jianglin Fan

doi:10.3390/ijms23168955

Effect of Heat Shock Preconditioning on Pressure Injury Prevention via Hsp27 Upregulation in Rat Models

Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Aug 11;23(16):8955. doi: 10.3390/ijms23168955.

Authors

Huiwen Xu^{1

2}, En Takashi¹, Jingyan Liang³, Yajie Chen⁴, Yuan Yuan^{1

2}, Jianglin Fan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Division of Basic & Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Nursing, Nagano College of Nursing, Komagane, Nagano 399-4117, Japan.
² School of Nursing & Public Health, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225000, China.
³ Institute of Translational Medicine, Medical College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225000, China.
⁴ Department of Molecular Pathology, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Tokyo 409-3898, Japan.

Abstract

Pressure injury (PI) prevention is a huge industry and involves various interventions. Temperature and moisture are important factors for wound healing; however, the active mechanism by which “moist heat” affects PI prevention has not yet been clarified. Thus, we explored the protective and therapeutic effects of hydrotherapy on PI based on the preconditioning (PC) principle, which might be useful for clinical practice. This study aimed to investigate the preventive mechanisms of heat shock preconditioning on PIs in rat models. The experiment was performed in the basic medical laboratory of Nagano College of Nursing in Japan. Ten rats were divided into two groups, with five rats in each group. Rats in the control group were not bathed. Rats in the preconditioning group (PC group) were bathed with hot tap-water. Bathing was conducted thrice a week. After bathing for 4 weeks, the PI model was constructed on the rats’ dorsal skin. The skin temperature, skin moisture, and area of ulcers were compared between the two groups. In vitro, we investigated the expression of heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) in 6, 12, and 24 h after the PI model was constructed through Western blot analysis. Ulcers occurred in the control group 24 h after the PI model constructed, wheras the PC group exhibited ulcers after 36 h. The ulcer area was larger in the control group than that in the PC group after 24 h (all p < 0.05). The temperatures of PI wounds in the control group decreased and were lower than those in the PC group after 1, 6, 12, 36, and 48 h (all p < 0.05). However, the skin moisture levels of PI wounds increased in the control group and were higher than those in the PC group at the same time (all p < 0.05). Using Western blot analysis, hydrotherapy preconditioning showed the potential to increase Hsp27 expression after pressure was released (p < 0.05). We determine that heat shock preconditioning had a preventive effect on PIs in rat models, a result that may be associated with their actions in the upregulation of Hsp27.

Keywords: Hsp27; hydrotherapy; preconditioning; pressure injury; prevention.

MeSH terms

Animals
HSP27 Heat-Shock Proteins* / genetics
HSP27 Heat-Shock Proteins* / metabolism
HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins* / genetics
HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins* / metabolism
Heat-Shock Response
Pressure Ulcer*
Rats
Ulcer
Up-Regulation

Substances

HSP27 Heat-Shock Proteins
HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), grant/award number: 18K10510 and 21H03269, and the National Key Research Program of China, grant number: 2016YFE0126000. The APC was fund by the National Key Research Program of China (2016YFE0126000).