Neuromechanism of acupuncture regulating gastrointestinal motility

Abstract

Acupuncture has been used in China for thousands of years and has become more widely accepted by doctors and patients around the world. A large number of clinical studies and animal experiments have confirmed that acupuncture has a benign adjustment effect on gastrointestinal (GI) movement; however, the mechanism of this effect is unclear, especially in terms of neural mechanisms, and there are still many areas that require further exploration. This article reviews the recent data on the neural mechanism of acupuncture on GI movements. We summarize the neural mechanism of acupuncture on GI movement from four aspects: acupuncture signal transmission, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the enteric nervous system, and the central nervous system.

Effect of Electroacupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) on Sepsis Induced by Cecal Ligation Puncture and Its Relevance to Spleen

“…The parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in neural networks to control gastrointestinal motility. By summarizing data from existing researches, Yu [ 45 ] put forward that stimulating acupoints located at arms and legs, such as ST36 and LI11, activates vagal efferent fiber and results in positive gut motility, and stimulating acupoints distributed in the abdomen (like ST25) regulates gut motility negatively in a sympathetic dependent way. Vagotomy or knockout genes encoding M2 and M3 receptors can reduce the former action and antagonist of sympathetic nerve or deletion of genes encoding β 1 and β 2 receptors can attenuate the latter effect [ 42 – 44 , 46 ].…”

“…These results indicated that we can choose different acupoints for EA depending on different kinds of gastrointestinal dysfunction. Besides, further studies found that EA at ST36 and ST25 induced different connections to the central nervous system: ST36-parasympathetic pathways-dorsal motor nucleus-solitary tract nucleus and ST25-sympathetic pathways-intermediolateral column of the spinal cord-rostral ventrolateral medulla-solitary tract nucleus [ 45 ]. It provided neural anatomical evidence for us to understand the effects of acupuncture on gastric motor function in rats.…”

Nonpharmacologic Treatment for Children with Functional Constipation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Future studies may also investigate interventions of interest of which no trials were found like J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f personalized gut-microbiota interventions, chicory inulin (90), exercise (91), (electro)acupuncture (92)(93)(94), other non-invasive neuromodulating therapies like posterior tibial nerve stimulation (95), and virtual and digital interventions (96). Because education and ongoing toilet training are considered key elements in the treatment of childhood constipation, interventions motivating children to defecate and improving the self-efficacy of children in their constipation treatment are likely to be of great value (97).…”

Acupuncture, from the ancient to the current

“…The enhancement of gastric motility by acupuncture can inhibit the glutamatergic system in the hippocampus , Wang, Xu, et al, 2020b. Acupuncture at ST36 could also restore the enteric motor neuron function by regulating the expression of nitric oxide synthase and choline acetyltransferase (Yu, 2020). Acupuncture could maintain the intestinal homeostasis via the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, which can be activated by the enteric glial cells (Hu et al, 2015).…”

“…Acupuncture could maintain the intestinal homeostasis via the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway, which can be activated by the enteric glial cells (Hu et al, 2015). Acupuncture also has been shown to have regulating actions on the brain-gut peptides, such as, motilin, ghrelin, and gastrin (Yu, 2020).…”