American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology
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Am. J. Physiol. Gastrointest. Liver Physiol. · Apr 2010
Ameliorating effects and mechanisms of electroacupuncture on gastric dysrhythmia, delayed emptying, and impaired accommodation in diabetic rats.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects and mechanisms of electroacupuncture (EA) on gastric accommodation, gastric dysrhythmia, and gastric emptying (GE) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Five experiments were performed in five groups of STZ-induced diabetic rats to study the effects of EA at ST-36 (Zusanli) on gastric slow-wave dysrhythmia, delayed GE and intestinal transit, impaired gastric accommodation, and the mechanisms of EA involving the autonomic and opioidergic pathways. We found the following: 1) EA improved gastric dysrhythmia in the diabetic rats. ⋯ Gastric accommodation was 0.98 +/- 0.13 ml with sham EA and significantly increased to 1.21 +/- 0.15 ml with EA (P = 0.01), and this effect was blocked by naloxone. 4) EA increased vagal activity assessed by the spectral analysis of the heart rate variability. We concluded that EA at ST-36 improves gastric dysrhythmia, delayed GE and intestinal transit, and impaired accommodation in STZ-induced diabetic rats, and the improvement seems to be mainly mediated via the vagal pathway. EA may have a promising therapeutic potential for diabetic gastroparesis.