Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2018; 24(28): 3130-3144
Published online Jul 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i28.3130
Moxibustion treatment modulates the gut microbiota and immune function in a dextran sulphate sodium-induced colitis rat model
Qin Qi, Ya-Nan Liu, Xiao-Ming Jin, Lin-Shuang Zhang, Cun Wang, Chun-Hui Bao, Hui-Rong Liu, Huan-Gan Wu, Xiao-Mei Wang
Qin Qi, Ya-Nan Liu, Cun Wang, Yueyang Clinical Medical College, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200437, China
Xiao-Ming Jin, Stark Neurosciences Research Institute and Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Lin-Shuang Zhang, Zhejiang Institute for Food and Drug Control, Hangzhou 310052, Zhejiang Province, China
Chun-Hui Bao, Hui-Rong Liu, Huan-Gan Wu, Xiao-Mei Wang, Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture-moxibustion and Meridian, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
Author contributions: Wang XM conceived and designed the study; Qi Q and Wang XM wrote the main manuscript text; Qi Q and Liu YN performed animal experiments; Jin XM collected data; Wang C and Bao CH analysed data; Liu HR and Wu HG prepared figures and tables; Jin XM and Zhang LS edited and improved the manuscript; all authors reviewed the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81473758; and National Basic Research Programme of China (973 programme), No. 2015CB554500.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (IACUC protocol number: 201611006).
Conflict-of-interest statement: To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xiao-Mei Wang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture-moxibustion and Meridian, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 650 South Wanping Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200030, China. wxm123@vip.sina.com
Telephone: +86-21-64381106
Received: April 9, 2018
Peer-review started: April 9, 2018
First decision: May 9, 2018
Revised: May 22, 2018
Accepted: June 25, 2018
Article in press: June 25, 2018
Published online: July 28, 2018
Processing time: 109 Days and 5.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a form of inflammatory bowel disease and microbial dysbiosis is an important pathological factor of UC. Moxibustion treatment can repair mucosal tissue damage and regulate immune function in patients with UC associated with gut microbiome changes. In this study, moxibustion can significantly reduce the colonic tissue damage and the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and anti-inflammatory cytokines in rats with 4% dextran sulphate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis, relieve intestinal inflammation, and promote the restoration of impaired colonic tissue. In addition, moxibustion can increase the diversity of the gut microbiome and the UC with 7 d of moxibustion had a higher alpha diversity than UC with 14 d of moxibustion.