Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Kwang-Ho Pyun.
GV01 is one of the most effective acupoints to treat diarrhea in humans and animals. The present study showed that skin on the GV01 acupoint reveals tenderness and neurogenic inflammation in colonic inflammatory states, but not in normal healthy states.
Acupoints on the Large Intestine Meridian and specific acupoints related with large intestine have been empirically used to treat large intestinal disease. However, the relationship between acupoints related with large intestine and their functions has not been investigated fully. We investigated whether large intestine-related acupoints affect colonic motility in conscious dogs implanted with electrodes at the proximal colon. Manual acupuncture was applied at the following acupoints: 7 main points on the Large Intestine Meridian (LI1, LI2, LI3, LI4, LI5, LI6, and LI11), ST25, BL25 or GV1. Acupuncture at the Large Intestine Meridian acupoints, ST25 and BL25 had no significant effects on the proximal colonic motility. However, acupuncture at GV1 depressed the proximal colonic motility by decreasing the total duration and the frequency of contractile states, which may contribute to the therapeutic effects of GV1. This study also revealed that there was no clear correlation between Large Intestine Meridian and the proximal colonic motility in conscious dogs.
Oriental medicine uses acupuncture at the GV01 acupoint with great success to treat diarrhea. It significantly reduced the colonic motility and inflammation in colitic rats. Naloxone pretreatment blocked these effects. The therapeutic effects of acupuncture at GV01 in colitis may involve endogenous opioid pathways.
Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the treatment of many functional disorders including alcohol abuse. In the present study, the effects of acupuncture on alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) and Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the striatum and the nucleus accumbens (NAC) of rats were investigated. During 3 days of cessation following chronic administration of ethanol (3 g/kg, i.p. for 3 weeks), rats showed a significant increase in AWS, such as hypermotility, tail rigidity, grooming and tremor, and an increase in FLI in the dopamine terminal areas of the brain. Treatment with acupuncture at zusanli (ST36) or sanyinjiao (SP6) during the withdrawal period inhibited both AWS and FLI of rats undergoing ethanol injection. These results suggest that acupuncture may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism by modulating post-synaptic neural activation in the striatum and NAC.
Depression is associated with a dysfunctional serotonin system. Recently, several lines of evidence have suggested that a very important evoking factor in depression may be a serotonin deficit in the hippocampus. This study assessed the antidepression effects of Nelumbinis Semen (NS) through increasing serotonin concentrations under normal conditions and reversing a decrease in serotonin concentrations in rat hippo-campus with depression-like symptoms induced by chronic mild stress (CMS). Using an in-vivo microdialysis technique, the serotonin-enhancing effect of NS on rat hippocampus was investigated and its effects compared with those of two well-known antidepressants, Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort) and fluoxetine (Prozac). Rats were divided into five groups: saline-treated normal, without CMS; saline-treated stress control; NS-, St John's wort- and fluoxetine-treated rats under CMS for 8 weeks or no stress treatment. NS and fluoxetine significantly increased serotonin in normal conditions and reversed a CMS-induced decrease in serotonin release in the hippocampus (P<0.05 compared with normal group or control group under CMS). These results suggest that NS increases the serotonin levels normally decreased in depression, resulting in an enhancement of central serotonergic transmission and possible therapeutic action in depression. It is suggested that NS may present an antidepressant effect through enhancement of serotonin.
Repeated injections of nicotine can produce behavioral sensitization, as evidenced by an enhanced locomotor response to a subsequent injection of the drug. Behavioral sensitization has been suggested as a model for studying drug addiction. Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely used for treatment for many functional disorders, such as substance abuse and mental dysfunction. We examined the effect of acupuncture on nicotine-induced behavioral locomotor activity and c-fos expression in the nucleus accumbens and striatum utilizing the immunocytochemical detection of the Fos protein. The rats were given repeated daily nicotine injections (0.4 mg/kg s.c., twice daily for 7 days) followed by one challenging injection on the 4th day after the last daily injection. Acupuncture at zusanli (ST36), but not control, significantly attenuated expected increase in nicotine-induced locomotor activity and Fos-like-immunoreactivity in the nucleus accumebns and striatum to subsequent nicotine challenge. These findings suggest that acupuncture has a therapeutic effect on nicotine addiction, possibly by modulating postsynaptic neuronal activity in the nucleus accumbens and the striatum.
We have previously shown that electroacupuncture (EA) at Shaohai and Neiguan (HT3-PC6) points significantly attenuated stress-induced peripheral responses, including increases in blood pressure, heart rate and plasma catecholamines. In this study, we examined the central effect of EA on the expression of c-fos, one of the immediate-early genes in the brain of rats subjected to immobilization stress. Immobilization stress (180 minutes) preferentially produced a significant increase in Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in stress-relevant regions including the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN), arcuate nucleus (ARN), supraoptic nucleus (SON), suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), medial amygdaloid nucleus (AMe), bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), hippocampus, lateral septum (LS), nucleus accumbens, and the locus coeruleus (LC). EA (3 Hz, 0.2 ms rectangular pulses, 20 mA) at HT3-PC6 on the heart and pericardium channels for 30 minutes during stress, significantly attenuated stress-induced FLI in the parvocellular PVN, SON, SCN, AMe, LS and the LC. However, EA stimulations at HT3-PC6 had no effect on FLI in the magnocelluar PVN, ARN, BST or the hippocampus. EA stimulation at HT3-PC6 had a greater inhibitory effect on stress-induced FLI than that at TE5-LI11, the triple energizer and large intestine meridian, or non-acupoints. These results demonstrated that EA attenuated stress-induced c-fos expression in brain areas. These results suggest that decreased c-fos expression in hypothalamic and LC neurons, among stress-related areas, may reflect the integrative action of acupuncture in stress response.
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and cholecystokinin (CCK) are known to play important roles in the response to stress and the control of anxiety. In order to investigate the role of NPY and CCK in chronic mild stress (CMS), an animal model of depression, we examined the effects of CMS on sucrose intake as a measure of anhedonia, and expression of NPY and CCK in the rat brain utilizing immunohistochemistry. Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to a variety of chronic unpredictable mild stressors for 8 weeks. CMS rats significantly reduced the consumption of sucrose intake and gained body weight more slowly, compared to control rats. CMS dramatically produced a decrease in NPY expression in several diencephalic regions including the parvocellular subregion of the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN), the periventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PE), the paraventricular thalamic nucleus (PV) and the arcuate nucleus (ACN). In contrast, CCK-like immunoreactivity throughout these areas was substantially increased in chronic mild stressed rats. These results clearly demonstrated that exposure of chronic mild stress upregulated CCK synthesis and downregulated NPY synthesis within the hypothalamus. The present results demonstrated that there was an inverse relationship between NPY and CCK in mediating stress response in an animal model of depression. These findings suggest that CCK and NPY systems may play important roles in expressing the symptopathology of the chronic stress responses such as depression, abnormality of food intake or anxiety-related disorders.