American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology
-
Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. · Jul 2020
Effects of electroacupuncture on stress-induced gastric dysrhythmia and mechanisms involving autonomic and central nervous systems in functional dyspepsia.
Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used as an effective method to treat stress-related disorders. However, its mechanisms remain largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects and mechanisms of EA on gastric slow wave (GSW) dysrhythmia and c-Fos expression in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) induced by stress in a rodent model of functional dyspepsia (FD). ⋯ The involvement of a central afferent pathway was assessed by measuring c-Fos-immunoreactive cells in the NTS. 1) EA normalized restraint stress-induced impairment of GSW in FD rats. 2) EA significantly increased vagal activity (P = 0.002) and improved sympathovagal balance (P = 0.004) under stress in FD rats. 3) In FD rats under restraint stress, plasma norepinephrine concentration was increased substantially (P < 0.01), which was suppressed with EA. 4) The EA group showed increased c-Fos-positive cell counts in the NTS compared with the sham EA group (P < 0.05) in FD rats. Acute restraint stress induces gastric dysrhythmia in a rodent model of FD. EA at ST36 improves GSW under stress in FD rats mediated via the central and autonomic pathways, involving the NTS and vagal efferent pathway.