Effect of Electro-Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Brain Connectivity in Patients with Crohn’s Disease: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Abstract

Acupuncture and moxibustion have been shown to be effective in treating Crohn’s disease (CD), but their therapeutic mechanisms remain unclear. Here we compared brain responses to either electro-acupuncture or moxibustion treatment in CD patients experiencing remission. A total of 65 patients were randomly divided into an electro-acupuncture group (n = 32) or a moxibustion group (n = 33), and treated for 12 weeks. Eighteen patients in the electro-acupuncture group and 20 patients in the moxibustion group underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging at baseline and after treatment. Seed-based analysis was used to compare the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between bilateral hippocampus and other brain regions before and after the treatments, as well as between the two groups. The CD activity index (CDAI) and inflammatory bowel disease questionnaire (IBDQ) were used to evaluate disease severity and patient quality of life. Electro-acupuncture and moxibustion both significantly reduced CDAI values and increased IBDQ scores. In the electro-acupuncture group, the rsFC values between bilateral hippocampus and anterior middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and insula were significantly increased, and the changes were negatively correlated with the CDAI scores. In the moxibustion group, the rsFC values between bilateral hippocampus and precuneus as well as inferior parietal lobe (IPC) were significantly elevated, and the changes were negatively correlated with the CDAI scores. We conclude that the therapeutic effects of electro-acupuncture and moxibustion on CD may involve the differently modulating brain homeostatic afferent processing network and default mode network (DMN), respectively.

Difference of Liver and Kidney Metabolic Profiling in Chronic Atrophic Gastritis Rats between Acupuncture and Moxibustion Treatment

“…Acupuncture and moxibustion, most popular complementary and alternative therapies, have been used for thousands of years in China [ 7 ]. Currently, they are increasingly used over time because of their lower costs and safety for clinical use [ 8 ].…”

Crohn’s Disease Treated by Chinese Medicine

“…Herb-partition moxibustion combined with acupuncture can improve the clinical common symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue and anorexia for mild and moderate CD [26]. Both treatments of electro-acupuncture and moxibustion improved cortex-subcortical coupling in remissive CD patients, but electro-acupuncture regulated homeostatic afferent processing network, while moxibustion mainly regulated the default mode network [44]. In CD rats, moxibustion can up-regulate the A20 expression level and down-regulate the expression of TNFR1, TRADD, and RIP1, and increase cell apoptosis in the intestinal epithelial barrier [45].…”

The Impact of Korean Medicine Treatment on the Incidence of Parkinson’s Disease in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study in South Korea

“…Acupuncture and moxibustion treatment showed better overall efficacy than 5-aminosalicylic acid in treating IBD [29]. According to a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in CD patients, electro-acupuncture and moxibustion mainly modulated the brain homeostatic afferent processing network and default mode network, respectively [30]. These results suggested that electro-acupuncture and moxibustion may help to improve clinical results in CD patients through different central integration patterns.…”