Repeated transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation of nonspecific acupoints of the upper body attenuates stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity in rats.

Repeated transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation of nonspecific acupoints of the upper body attenuates stress-induced visceral hypersensitivity in rats. Auton Neurosci. 2019 Sep;220:102556 Authors: Huang CS, Sun YH, Wang YT, Pan YH, Huang YC, Hsu CM, Tsai YF Abstract Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common stress-related gastrointestinal disorder and visceral hypersensitivity (VH) is characteristically found in IBS patients. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) applied to certain acupoints has been shown to benefit IBS patients. Here, we investigated whether nonspecific acupoint is involved in the efficacy of TENS treatment for IBS. Twenty-five male rats were randomly assigned to four experimental groups and one sham-control group. The four experimental groups were defined as TENS-RR, TENS-RL, TENS-LR, and TENS-LL based on the location of the two TENS patches [right (R) or left (L)]. The former and latter letter pairs indicate that the patch locations were the upper chest and upper back, respectively. The heterotypic intermittent stress (HIS) protocol was performed for 16 days. VH was assessed by electromyography to evaluate response to rectal distention (RD). Modulated medium-frequency TENS, sweep range 1-10 Hz, amplitude slightly above the supra motor threshold, was applied 30 min per day followed by RD every second day for the final 7 days of the 16-day HIS period. VH was induced after the rats had bee...
Source: Autonomic Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Auton Neurosci Source Type: research