| Objective To explore the changes of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) signaling pathways in patients with osteoporotic hip fractures of different TCM syndromes. Methods A total of 120 patients with osteoporotic hip fractures undergoing total hip arthroplasty in the Liyuan Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were prospectively enrolled between November 2018 and December 2021. According to different TCM syndromes, there were liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome, spleen-kidney yang deficiency syndrome, kidney-yang deficiency syndrome and qi-stagnation blood stasis syndrome. The expression levels of ERK1/2 mRNA and proteins were detected. The differences of ERK1/2 in patients with different syndromes were analyzed. Results Among the 120 patients, proportion of liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome was the highest, followed by spleen-kidney yang deficiency syndrome, kidney-yang deficiency syndrome and qi-stagnation blood stasis syndrome. The kidney-yang deficiency syndrome was common in males, and kidney-yin deficiency was common in females. The average age of patients with qi-stagnation blood syndrome was higher than that with other syndromes (P<0.05). The bone mineral density values of L2-4, femoral neck, trochanter area and Wards area were the greatest in patients with liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome, followed by spleen-kidney yang deficiency syndrome, kidney-yang deficiency syndrome and qi-stagnation blood stasis syndrome (P<0.05). The expression level of ERK1/2 mRNA was the highest in patients with liver-kidney yin deficiency syndrome, followed by spleen-kidney yang deficiency syndrome, kidney-yang deficiency syndrome and qi-stagnation blood stasis syndrome (P<0.05), and expression levels of ERK1/2 proteins were the same (P<0.05). The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that mean BMD values of L2-4, femoral neck, trochanter area and Wards area were positively correlated with expression levels of ERK1 mRNA, ERK2 mRNA, ERK1 protein and ERK2 protein (r=0.251, 0.306, 0.318, 0.270, P<0.05). Conclusion The expression levels of ERK1/2 mRNA and proteins are the highest in patients with osteoporosis of kidney yin deficiency syndrome, followed by kidney yang deficiency syndrome and qi-stagnation blood stasis syndrome. And their expression levels are positively correlated with BMD. |