Moxibustion inhibits interleukin-12 and tumor necrosis factor alpha and modulates intestinal flora in rat with ulcerative colitis

Figure 4 Herb-partition moxibustion treatment decreases the colonic pathogenic bacteria Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli of rats with ulcerative colitis. The DNA copies of the pathogenic bacteria Bacteroides fragilis (B. fragilis), and Escherichia coli (E. coli) were both significantly increased in the ulcerative colitis (UC) rats compared to the normal control (NC) rats (P = 0.000). After herb-partition moxibustion (HPM) treatment, the DNA copies of B. fragilis and E. coli were both significantly decreased in the HPM group (P = 0.001 and P = 0.000) and sulfasalazine (SA) group (P = 0.001 and P = 0.003) compared with the UC model group.