Local mechanisms for acupoint sensitization in gall bladder meridian of foot shaoyang-a gene chip study

Abstract

Acupuncture manipulations are clinically important to traditional Chinese medicine, yet the biological mechanisms have not been fully understood. This study aimed to investigate continuous stimulation-induced gene expression changes at stimulated and non-stimulated adjacent acupoints in the same meridian. Catgut embedding into acupoint (CEP) was conducted at acupoint Yanglingquan (gall bladder meridian of foot-shaoyang 34, GB34) of Sprague Dawley rats once or continuously for eight weeks, and gene expression changes at GB34 were assessed by gene chip array analysis 72 h after the last CEP treatment. A total of 688 genes exhibited opposite changes in expression between the two treatments, and 1,336 genes were regulated only by the eight-week CEP treatment. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed that among these differentially regulated genes by one-time and eight-week CEP treatment, insulin-like growth factor-1 pathway and integrin-linked kinase pathway, and Wnt/~ catenin signaling pathway match the observed gene changes to predicted up/down regulation patterns. Upstream analysis further predicted six molecules, namely, tumor necrosis factor, interleukin 1~, interleukin la, kallikrein-related peptidase 5, protein kinase Ca, and catenin ~1. On the other hand, continuous eight-week CEP stimulation at acupoint Xuanzhong (GB39) caused similar changes in the expression of 32 genes at acupoints GB34 and Fengshi (GB31) on the same meridian. Taken together, our results provide the first molecular evidence for the local acupoints' mechanisms for acupoint sensitization theory, and implicate the existence of signaling pathways, either direct or indirect, between acupoints within the meridian GB.

Keywords

Acupuncture Embedding catgut into acupoint Local acupoints' mechanisms Acupoints' sensitization Meridian Ingenuity Pathway Analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Spoerel

W.E.

Acupuncture analGesia in China. Am J Chin Med (Gard City N V),1975. 3 (4) p. 359–68.

Toomey

TC.

., Acupuncture and chronic pain mechanisms: the moderatinG effects of affect. personality. and stress on response to treatment. Pain. 1977. 3 (2) p. 137–45.

Manheimer

., Meta-analysis: Acupuncture for low back pain. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2005. 142 (8) p. 651–663.

S.X.

Enhanced nitric oxide concentrations and expression of nitric, oxide synthase in acupuncture points/meridians. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine,2003. 9 (2) p.207–215.

Luo

M.F.

., Effect of electroacupuncture and moxibustion. of “Dazhui” (GV14L on the number and distribution of deGranulated mast cells in GV14 reGion. Zhen ci yan jiu = Acupuncture research / [Zhongguo yi xue ke xue yuan Vi xue qing bao yan jiu suo bian ji], 2007. 32 (5) p. 327–329.

Ding

., Function of collaaea and mast cells in acupuncture points. in Current Research in Acupuncture. 2012. p. 53–87.

, et al., Effects of acupuncture with different filiform needles on tissues. cells and collaaenous fiber of fascia in acupoint area of rats. Zhongguo zhen jiu = Chinese acupuncture & moxibustion, 2015. 35 (8) p. 801–805.

Chen

D.Y.

,(A preliminarv study on cataut embeddina at point sanviniiaa to induce ovulation!. Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi, 1984.4 (9) p. 521–2, 514.

Yeh

C.C.

Wang

C.H.

, and Maa

S.H.

(A conceptual framework, of the effectiveness of acupuncture. Hu LiZa Zhi, 2007. 54 (4) p. 5–9.

10.

Chen

R.X.

and Kang

M.F.

(Clinical application of acupoint heat-sensitization!. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu, 2007. 27 (3) p. 199–202.

11.

L.L.

, et al., Chanaes in responses of neurons in spinal and medullary subnucleus reticularis dorsalis to acupoint stimulation in rats with visceral hvperalaesia. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2014. 2014:p. 768634.

12.

Ding

. Lack of association between acupoint sensitization and microcirculatorv structural chanaes in a mouse model, of knee osteoarthritis: A pilot study. J Biophotonics,2019: p. e201800458.

13.

Bai

, et al., Spinal Cord Glycine Transporter. 2 Mediates Bilateral ST35 Acupoints Sensitization in Rats with Knee Osteoarthritis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2019. 2019:p. 7493286.

14.

Zhang

et. al., Acupoint Sensitization is Associated with Increased Excitabilitv and Hvperoolarization-Activated Current (Jh)in C- But Not Adelta-Tvpe Neurons. Neuroscience,2019. 404: p. 499–509.

15.

et al., A new approach. for mappina the atlas of acupoints in the rat Acupuncture Research,2018: p. 1–6.

16.

Yang

I.V.

, et al., Within the fold: assessina differential expression measures and reproducibilitv in microarravassavs. Genome Bioi, 2002. 3 (11) p. research0062.

17.

Kramer

et. al., Causal analvsis approaches in Inaenuitv Pathway Analysis. Bioinformatics,2014. 30 (4) p. 523–30.

18.

Yin

H.Y.

, et al., Gene expression profiles at moxibustioned site tST36):A microarrav. analysis. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2013. 2013.