Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2019; 25(32): 4696-4714
Published online Aug 28, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i32.4696
Effect of mild moxibustion on intestinal microbiota and NLRP6 inflammasome signaling in rats with post-inflammatory irritable bowel syndrome
Chun-Hui Bao, Chun-Ye Wang, Guo-Na Li, Yi-Lu Yan, Di Wang, Xiao-Ming Jin, Lu-Yi Wu, Hui-Rong Liu, Xiao-Mei Wang, Zheng Shi, Huan-Gan Wu
Chun-Hui Bao, Chun-Ye Wang, Guo-Na Li, Yi-Lu Yan, Di Wang, Lu-Yi Wu, Hui-Rong Liu, Xiao-Mei Wang, Zheng Shi, Huan-Gan Wu, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Immunological Effects, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
Xiao-Ming Jin, Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Author contributions: Bao CH and Wang CY contributed equally to this work; Wu HG and Bao CH conceived and designed this research; Bao CH and Wang CY wrote the manuscript; Li GN and Jin XM revised the manuscript; Bao CH, Wang CY, and Yan YL performed the experiments; Wu LY and Wang XM collected and analyzed the data; Li GN and Wang D prepared the figures and tables; Shi Z and Liu HR supervised the research; all authors approved the final version of this article.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81503656; and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), No. 2015CB554501 and No. 2009CB522900.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the standardizing laboratory animal ethical review of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the standardizing laboratory animal ethical review of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Ethical review code: SZY201711006).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The ARRIVE guidelines have been adopted.
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/
Corresponding author: Huan-Gan Wu, PhD, Professor, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Immunological Effects, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 650 South Wanping Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200030, China. wuhuangan@126.com
Telephone: +86-21-64644238 Fax: +86-21-64644238
Received: April 15, 2019
Peer-review started: April 15, 2019
First decision: June 16, 2019
Revised: June 27, 2019
Accepted: July 5, 2019
Article in press: July 5, 2019
Published online: August 28, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Moxibustion has been shown to have a therapeutic effect on post-infectious/post-inflammatory irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS). However, it is unclear whether moxibustion achieves its therapeutic effect by regulating intestinal microbiota and inflammatory responses in PI-IBS. In this study, we found that visceral hypersensitivity and low-grade intestinal inflammation in PI-IBS rats were significantly inhibited by 7-d mild moxibustion treatment. This treatment effect of moxibustion may be related to regulating the relative abundances of selected gut microbes and controlling NLRP6 inflammasome signaling.