Meta-Analysis of Preventive and Therapeutic Effects of Ligustrazine on Airway Remodeling in Asthmatic Rats

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of ligustrazine on airway remodeling in asthmatic rats. METHODS: To collect studies on the effects of ligustrazine on airway remodeling in asthmatic rat models, PubMed, Embase, CBM, Cochrane, Chinese Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP, and Wanfang data (WANFANG) were searched using a computer. Two investigators independently screened the literature, extracted the data, and assessed the methodological quality by complying with the inclusion criteria. Moreover, a meta-analysis was conducted by adopting Stata 11.0. RESULTS: On the whole, 10 articles were included. As indicated from the meta-analysis, we have the following: ① ligustrazine was capable of reducing the thickness of the airway smooth muscle and inhibiting the proliferation of smooth muscle (WMD = −5.98, 95% CI (−7.75, −4.42), P ≤ 0.001); ② ligustrazine could reduce the thickness of the airway wall and mitigate tracheal stenosis (WMD = 0.12, 95% CI (0.05, 0.20), P ≤ 0.001); ③ ligustrazine could decrease the number of eosinophils in the lung tissue and reduce airway inflammation (WMD = −14.47, 95% CI (−18.09, −10.86), P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION: Ligustrazine was demonstrated to be an effective therapeutic drug in asthmatic rats by preventing and treating airway remodeling. Further high-quality experimental studies should be conducted to investigate the mechanism of ligustrazine action in depth.