Tianhao Du,1– 3,* Liangliang Zhou,1,4,* Jia Liu,1,* Xiao Wang,1,2 Haoxu Xie,1,2 Xu Yang,1 Yingxin Yang1 

1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China; 2Liaoning University of traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China; 3Hebei Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Orthopedics, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Yingxin Yang, General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, No. 83, Culture Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of China, Email qjrszx@163.com

Introduction: Skeletal muscle injuries are short-term, that occur in people who play sports and train. Regular exercise and sports populations undergo repetitive tearing and regeneration of skeletal muscle, in which muscle damage is a necessary component to produce an oxidative inflammatory response and tissue reconstruction. The primary goals of treating this illness are to reduce the disease process cycle and get rid of symptoms like swelling and inflammation at the site of localized injury. Berberine (BBR) has several pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-arrhythmic properties.
Methods: In order to treat skeletal muscle injuries, a safe and non-toxic nanogel (BBR/GelMA) was developed for efficient berberine delivery. It also investigated whether BBR/GelMA had anti-inflammatory properties via the NF-κB pathway. Microwave irradiation was added to promote the uptake of BBR in BBR/GelMA by injured skeletal muscle and to accelerate the process of injury recovery.
Results: It turns out that the survival rates of NIH313 and L929 cells decreased to varying degrees in GelMA loaded with different concentrations of BBR, but the survival rates of the two cell lines were the highest at a concentration of 0.125 mg/mL.
Conclusion: In this experiment, the inhibitory effect of BBR/GelMA on inflammation was studied. After NIH-313 and L929 cells were treated with GelMA loaded with different doses of BBR, it was found that the concentration of BBR/0.5 mg/mL had the best inhibitory effect on these two inflammation-inducing cell lines, and this inhibitory effect was related to the drug loading concentration. On the other hand, BBR/GelMA and microwave therapy can play an anti-inflammatory and repairing role in skeletal muscle through NF-κB pathway. In addition, microwave can accelerate the diffusion of BBR in BBR/GelMA within injured skeletal muscle, speeding up the healing process after skeletal muscle injury and shortening the disease cycle.

Keywords: skeletal muscle injury, microwave therapy, berberine, GelMA