Active Acupoints Differ from Inactive Acupoints in Modulating Key Plasmatic Metabolites of Hypertension: A Targeted Metabolomics Study.

The effect of active acupoints versus inactive acupoints in treating hypertension is not well documented. Metabolic phenotypes, depicted by metabolomics analysis, reflect the influence of external exposures, nutrition, and lifestyle on the integrated system of the human body. Therefore, we utilized high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to compare the targeted metabolic phenotype changes induced by two different acupoint treatments. The clinical outcomes show that active acupoint treatment significantly lowers 24-hour systolic blood pressure but not diastolic blood pressure, as compared with inactive acupoint treatment. Furthermore, distinctive changes are observed between the metabolomics data of the two groups. Multivariate analysis shows that only in the active acupoint treatment group can the follow-up plasma be clearly separated from the baseline plasma. Moreover, the follow-up plasma of these two groups can be clearly separated, indicating two different post-treatment metabolic phenotypes. Three metabolites, sucrose, cellobiose, and hypoxanthine, are shown to be the most important features of active acupoint treatment. This study demonstrates that metabolomic analysis is a potential tool that can be used to efficiently differentiate the effect of active acupoints from inactive acupoints in treating hypertension. Possible mechanisms are the alternation of hypothalamic microinflammation and the restoration of host-gut microbiota interactions induced by acupuncture.

Absorption of sugars in the Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus): a paradox explained.

Two decades ago D. J. Keegan reported results on Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus, Megachiroptera) that were strangely at odds with the prevailing understanding of how glucose is absorbed in the mammalian intestine. Keegan's in vitro tests for glucose transport against a concentration gradient and with phloridzin inhibition in fruit bat intestine were all negative, although he used several different tissue preparations and had positive control results with laboratory rats. Because glucose absorption by fruit bats is nonetheless efficient, Keegan postulated that the rapid glucose absorption from the fruit bat intestine is not through the enterocytes, but must occur via spaces between the cells. Thus, we hypothesized that absorption of water-soluble compounds that are not actively transported would be extensive in these bats, and would decline with increasing molecular mass in accord with sieve-like paracellular absorption. We did not presume from Keegan's studies that there is no Na(+)-coupled, mediated sugar transport in these bats, and our study was not designed to rule it out, but rather to quantify the level of possible non-mediated absorption. Using a standard pharmacokinetic technique, we fed, or injected intraperitonealy, the metabolically inert carbohydrates L-rhamnose (molecular mass=164 Da) and cellobiose (molecular mass=342 Da), which are absorbed by paracellular uptake, and 3-O-methyl-D-glucose (3OMD-glucose), a D-glucose analog that is absorbed via both mediated (active) and paracellular uptake. As predicted, the bioavailability of paracellular probes declined with increasing molecular mass (rhamnose, 62+/-4%; cellobiose, 22+/-4%) and was significantly higher in bats than has been reported for rats and other mammals. In addition, fractional absorption of 3OMd-glucose was high (91+/-2%). We estimated that Egyptian fruit bats rely on passive, paracellular absorption for the majority of their glucose absorption (at least 55% of 3OMD-glucose absorption), much more than in non-flying mammals.