title: Electroacupuncture treatment partly promotes the recovery time of postoperative ileus by activating the vagus nerve but not regulating local inflammation.
abstract: Postoperative ileus (POI) after abdominal surgery significantly lowers the life quality of patients and increase hospital costs. However, few treatment strategies have successfully shortened the duration of POI. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a modern way of administering acupuncture and widely used in various gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in the world. Here, we studied the effect of EA on POI and its underlying mechanisms. Intestinal manipulation resulted in significant delays of GI transit, colonic transit and gastric emptying. Surgery also up-regulated c-fos in nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) and induced inflammation response in the small intestine. Further, operation and inhale anesthesia inhibited NTS neuron excitation duration for the whole observation time. EA administered at ST36 indeed shortened the recovery time of GI and colonic transit, and significantly increased the gastric emptying. EA also significantly activated the NTS neurons after operation. However, there was no anti-inflammation effect of EA during the whole experiment. Finally, atropine blocked the regulatory effect of EA on GI function, when it was injected after surgery, but not before surgery. Thus, the regulatory effect of EA on POI was mainly mediated by exciting NTS neurons to improve the GI tract transit function but not by activating cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Fan
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Qiao
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology &Acupuncture Research, the Third Clinical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000601:surgery; D000818:Animals; D001285:Atropine / Q000494:pharmacology; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000187:drug effects; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit / Q000187:drug effects; D045823:Ileus / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D007249:Inflammation; D053583:Interleukin-1beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017552:Solitary Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D053583:Interleukin-1beta; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D001285:Atropine