title: Moxibustion upregulates hippocampal progranulin expression.
abstract: In China, moxibustion is reported to be useful and has few side effects for chronic fatigue syndrome, but its mechanisms are largely unknown. More recently, the focus has been on the wealth of information supporting stress as a factor in chronic fatigue syndrome, and largely concerns dysregulation in the stress-related hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. In the present study, we aimed to determine the effect of moxibustion on behavioral symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome rats and examine possible mechanisms. Rats were subjected to a combination of chronic restraint stress and forced swimming to induce chronic fatigue syndrome. The acupoints Guanyuan (CV4) and Zusanli (ST36, bilateral) were simultaneously administered moxibustion. Untreated chronic fatigue syndrome rats and normal rats were used as controls. Results from the forced swimming test, open field test, tail suspension test, real-time PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and western blot assay showed that moxibustion treatment decreased mRNA expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone in the hypothalamus, and adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone levels in plasma, and markedly increased progranulin mRNA and protein expression in the hippocampus. These findings suggest that moxibustion may relieve the behavioral symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, at least in part, by modulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and upregulating hippocampal progranulin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: E-institute of Shanghai Municipal Education Committee, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jing-Jing
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jing-Cheng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3645-0324
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Dong
keywords: adrenocorticotropic hormone; behavioral symptoms; chronic fatigue syndrome; corticosterone; corticotrophin-releasing hormone; hippocampus; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; moxibustion; nerve regeneration; neural regeneration; progranulin; traditional Chinese medicine