Acupuncture at Gastric Back-Shu and Front-Mu Acupoints Enhances Gastric Motility via the Inhibition of the Glutamatergic System in the Hippocampus

Hao Wang; Wen-Jian Liu; Meng-Jie Hu; Meng-Ting Zhang; Guo-Ming Shen

doi:10.1155/2020/3524641

Acupuncture at Gastric Back-Shu and Front-Mu Acupoints Enhances Gastric Motility via the Inhibition of the Glutamatergic System in the Hippocampus

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Mar 10:2020:3524641. doi: 10.1155/2020/3524641. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Hao Wang¹, Wen-Jian Liu², Meng-Jie Hu³, Meng-Ting Zhang³, Guo-Ming Shen¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230012, Anhui Province, China.
² Department of Thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui Province, China.
³ College of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230012, Anhui Province, China.

Abstract

Acupuncture strongly alleviates gastrointestinal symptoms and especially promotes gastrointestinal motility. However, the mechanism underlying these processes is poorly understood. This study was designed to examine the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) at gastric back-shu (BL21) and front-mu (RN12) acupoints on gastric motility in functional dyspepsia (FD) rats and to investigate the mechanisms of its effects on the glutamatergic system in the hippocampus. We found that EA at RN12 or BL21 enhanced gastric motility in FD rats, whereas EA at the combination of RN12 and BL21 showed an additional effect. Microdialysis combined with HPLC showed that EA reduced the glutamate content in the hippocampus, and the NMDAR-NO-cGMP signalling pathway was downregulated, as determined by Western blot assays, in FD rats. In addition, we found that decreased gastric motility was significantly restored by the hippocampal infusion of an NMDAR, nNOS, or sGC antagonist. Interestingly, EA had no further effects on gastric motility in the presence of these antagonists in FD rats. Taken together, these results suggest that the hippocampal glutamatergic system is involved in the regulation of gastric motility by EA at RN12 and BL21.