Role of moxibustion in inflammatory responses during treatment of rat ulcerative colitis

Figure 6 Effect of moxibustion on expression of Toll-like receptor 9 as well as nuclear factor-κB p65. Expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR)9 as well as nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65 showed significant differences among all moxibustion-treated groups [3-min moxibustion (3M), 6-min moxibustion (6M) and 9-min moxibustion (9M)] and moxibustion-free groups [blank control (BC) and waiting list control (WLC)] with P < 0.01 for each comparison. For parallel comparisons between the moxibustion-treated groups, the differences were still significant for 3M vs 6M (P < 0.05), 3M vs 9M (P < 0.05), and 6M vs 9M (P < 0.05). The results for ulcerative colitis (UC) rats in the 9M group were the closest to the normal rats (BC). The results implied that 9 min moxibustion treatment resulted in the best improvement of UC within the physical tolerance of UC rats.