Purinergic ATP triggers moxibustion-induced local anti-nociceptive effect on inflammatory pain model.

Purinergic signalling adenosine and its A1 receptors have been demonstrated to get involved in the mechanism of acupuncture (needling therapy) analgesia. However, whether purinergic signalling would be responsible for the local analgesic effect of moxibustion therapy, the predominant member in acupuncture family procedures also could trigger analgesic effect on pain diseases, it still remains unclear. In this study, we applied moxibustion to generate analgesic effect on complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced inflammatory pain rats and detected the purine released from moxibustioned-acupoint by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) approach. Intramuscular injection of ARL67156 into the acupoint Zusanli (ST36) to inhibit the breakdown of ATP showed the analgesic effect of moxibustion was increased while intramuscular injection of ATPase to speed up ATP hydrolysis caused a reduced moxibustion-induced analgesia. These data implied that purinergic ATP at the location of ST36 acupoint is a potentially beneficial factor for moxibustion-induced analgesia.

[Effects of moxibustion on concentration of extracellular potassium ion in acupoint under different status].

OBJECTIVE: To observe different effects of moxibustion on extracellular potassium ion in acupoint under physiological and pathological status and provide experimental evidence for exploring action mechanism of moxibustion on acupoint local. METHODS: Forty female SD rats were randomly divided into a blank group, a blank-moxibustion group, a model group and a model-moxibustion group, 10 cases in each one. The complete Freund's adjuvant(CFA) was adopted to establish model of adjuvant arthritis (AA) in the model group and model-moxibustion group. No treatment was given in the blank group and model group while moxibustion was applied at "Zusan-li" (ST 36) for 30 min in the blank-moxibustion group and model-moxibustion group. The tissue fluid in "Zusanli" (ST 36) was collected with microdialysis and real-time analyzed by electrolytic analyzer. The change of concentration of potassium ion in "Zusanli" (ST 36) was observed. RESULTS: (1) Under physiological status, the concentration of extracellular potassium ion in the blank group was not changed within 150 min (P > 0.05); before the moxibustion, the concentration of extracellular potassium ion in the blank-moxibustion group was (1.21 +/- 0.31) mmol/L, and after treatment it was gradually increased and reached its peak at (2.38 +/- 0.42) mmol/L after 60 min (P < 0.05), then it was reduced. 150 min after the treatment, concentration of potassium ion was slightly higher than that before moxibustion as well as that in the blank group. The concentration in the blank-moxibustion group at 60 min was statistically significant compared with that in the blank group (P < 0.05). (2) Under pathological status, the concentration of extracellular potassium ion in the model group was not changed within 150 min, differences of which at each time point was not statistically significant (all P > 0.05). Before the moxibustion, the concentration of extracellular potassium ion was (1.09 +/- 0.12) mmol/L in the model-moxibustion group, and it was immediately increased to (1.96 +/- 0.18) mmol/L after moxibustion. 60 min and 90 min after the moxibustion, it still maintained a higher level, which was (1.87 +/- 0.29) mmol/L and (1.59 +/- 0.16) mmol/L respectively (both P < 0.05). The differences of each time point after moxibustion in the model-moxibustion group were statistically significant compared with those in the model group (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The moxibustion could increase the concentration of potassium ion in rat's acupoint local under physiological status but time of effect is short; with moxibustion at "Zusanli" (ST 36) under pathological status, the concentration of local potassium ion is obviously increased and maintains for a long time.