Genome-Wide Regulation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Ulcerative Colitis Rats

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Oct 8;2021:9945121. doi: 10.1155/2021/9945121. eCollection 2021.ABSTRACTAcupuncture and moxibustion have definite clinical effects on treating ulcerative colitis (UC), but their mechanism is still unclear. To investigate the molecular mechanisms, we applied herb-partitioned moxibustion or electroacupuncture at the Tianshu (ST25) points on UC rats and used RNA sequencing to identify molecular consequences. Male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were divided into 6 groups randomly: the normal control (NC) group, the control + herb-partitioned moxibustion (NCHM) group, the control + electroacupuncture (NCEA) group, the model (UC) group, the model + herb-partitioned moxibustion (UCHM) group, and the model + electroacupuncture (UCEA) group. Compared to the UC group, HE staining in the UCHM group and UCEA group indicated that colitis was relieved, the histopathological score and MPO were both significantly reduced, and the serum hs-CRP concentration was decreased significantly. The results of RNA-seq suggested that, compared to the NC group, 206 upregulated genes and 167 downregulated genes were identified in colon tissues from the UC group; compared to the UC group, the expression levels of some genes were both affected in the UCHM group and the UCEA group (684 differentially expressed genes were identified in the UCHM group, and 1182 differentially expressed genes were identified in the UCEA group). KEGG signal pathway analysis indicated that the d...
Source: Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Source Type: research