Acupuncture has been widely applied to treat gastrointestinal diseases in the clinic. However, its precise mechanism remains unknown. In the present study, effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at Zusanli acupoints (ST36) on gastric myoelectric activity and substance P (SP) in the dorsal vagal complex (DVC) were observed. EA at ST36 significantly increased the frequency of slow waves and the frequency of the spike potentials superimposed on the slow waves, which persisted for 90 min after cessation of EA and was completely abolished after bilateral vagotomy. Meanwhile, the mean optical density of SP immunoreactive fibers in the DVC increased following EA. The results suggested that EA at ST36 promoted the gastric myoelectric activity, which was regulated by the vagus, and SP in the DVC may be involved in the excitatory effects. Furthermore, EA had a relative long-term post-effect. We presumed that DVC may be a supraspinal center in the effect of EA on gastric function. q 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Clinical practice has shown that acupuncture at facial acupoints has curative effects onsome visceral diseases (especially gastrointestinal diseases). However, the physiological basis has not been clarified yet. In the present study, expression of c-fos in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) of rats following gastric distension and electroacupuncture (EA) at Yangbai (GB14) and Sibai (ST2) as well as Jiache (ST6) acupoints was observed by using immunohistochemistry technique. After EA at the three facial acupoints, c-fos immunoreactive (c-fos-IR) neurons were mainly distributed in the medial (mNTS) and intermediate subnucleus of the NTS, and a few were scatteredly distributed in the dorsalmedial and commissural subnucleus of the NTS. Furthermore, there is difference in the number of c-fos-IR neurons in the mNTS following EA at the three facial acupoints. The number in the EA at ST2 and GB14 group is the highest and the lowest, respectively. Gastric distension induces obviously the expression of c-fos, which is mainly confined in the mNTS. The results suggest that the noxious visceral and somatic afferent information from the stomach and face may converge in the mNTS, which may be involved in the effect of EA at facial acupoints on the gastrointestinal pain.

AIM: To investigate electroacupunture(EA) at the acupoints of Stomach Meridian of Foot-Yangming(SMFY), Gallbladder Meridian of Foot-Yangming(SMFY) on gastric mucosal intestinal trefoil factor (ITF) gene expression detection in stress-induced rats with gastric mucosal lesion, and to explore the regulatory mechanism and signify cance of EA-related gastric mucosal protective effect. METHODS: Forty rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: Blank group, Model group, Model group＋EA at acupoints of SMFY group(“SMFY group”), and Model group＋EA at acupoints of GMFY group(GMFY group). All rats (except blank group) were made model by water immersion and restraint stress (WRS). Then the gastric mucosa tissue in each rat was taken off after assessment of gastric mucosal lesion index(GUI), and the expression of ITF mRNA of the tissues was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) method. RESULTS: Compared with Model group(54.3 ± 1.34), the GUI value in SMFY group (31 ± 2.21) decreased significantly(P < 0.01), so did that in GMFY group (39.8 ± 1.62, P < 0.05), meanwhile GUI value in SMFY group was significantly lower than in GMFY group(P < 0.01). Compared with Model group (0.65 ± 0.01), EA had a tendency to improve the expression of gastric mucosal ITFmRNA gene: such tendency existed in GMFY group (0.66 ± 0.01) but with no signficant difference(P > 0.05), in SMFY group(0.76 ± 0.01) with an extremely obvious difference (P < 0.01), furthermore the expression in SMFY group was significantly higher than in GMFY group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The gastric mucosal protective effect by EA at the acupoints of SMFY and GMFY was related to the expression variance of ITF, indicating certain meridian specifi city exists. It could be one proof for the TCM theory “Relative particularity between SMFY and stomach”.

Objective：To study the effect of medicinal herb-cake-separated moxibustion on serum lipoprotein levels in hyperlipemia rabbits. Methods: A total of 55 New-Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into control group (n=13), model group (n=14) and medicinal herb-cake-separated moxibustion (indirect moxibustion) group (n=14). Hyperlipemia model was established by feeding the animals with specialized forage (15% vitellus powder, 5% cholesterol and common forage )for 6 weeks. Moxibustion was applied to “Juque”(CV14), “Tianshu”(ST40), etc, 4 moxa-cones for every acupoint, once daily and continuously for 40 days. Serum triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TCH) contents were assayed with colorimentric method. Results:Compared with control group, TCh and TG levels of model group increased significantly (p<0.01). TCh and TG contents of direct moxibustion and indirect moxibustion groups were significantly lower than those of model group (p<0.01).Comparison between two moxibustion groups showed that serum TCh level of indirect moxibustion group was strikingly lower than that of direct moxibustion group (p<0.01). It indicated that both direct and indirect moxibustion could effectively lower hyperlipemia and the therapeutic effect of indirect moxibustion was significantly superior to that of direct moxibustion in lowering serum TCh level. Conclusion: Both direct and indirect moxibustion canregulate lipid metabolism and the therapeutic effect of medicinal herb-cake-separated moxibustion is superior to that of direction moxibustion in hyperlipemia rabbits.

expression in gastric mucosal cells. Such tendency existed in the model group (0.7104 ± 0.0457) but with no signifi cant difference (P = 0.495 > 0.05) and in model serum group (0.8516 ± 0.0409) with an extremely obvious difference (P = 0.001 < 0.01). Furthermore, the EGFR gene expression in stomach serum group was significantly higher than that in gallbladder serum group (P = 0.00<0.01). CONCLUSION: The present study shows that serum derived from rats treated with electroacupuncture atstomach meridian acupoints can distinctly increase the EGFR gene expression of gastric mucosal cells. Therefore, there is certain meridian specificity in the serum, which could provide a proof for the TCM theory “particular relation between meridian and internal organ”.