Laboratory Study On Acupuncture And Moxibustion In Preventing And Treating Rats' Immune Hepatic Fibrosis Induced By Porcine Serum

Objective: study on acupuncture in preventing and treating rats' immune hepatic fibrosis from the aspect of synthesis increasing of ECM with multi angles of physiology, pathology, biology and immunohistochemistry, and multi gradations of histology, cytology and molecular biology, to figure out the actions and effective mechanisms of acupuncture, and seek a nonpharmacologic measure for preventing and treating hepatic fibrosis. Method: prepare the rats model by repeated intraperitoneal injections of porcine serum, under randomly group dividing and laboratory controlled trial, observe the liver function; the LN, HA, PCIII and CL-IV in serum; attenuate the a-SMA, TGF-b1 and collagens in the liver and pathological changes of morphology and histology. Results: a.) the hepatic fibrosis grades were higher in model groups (the numbers of the pseudo lobules of liver and the amount of the collagens in liver were increased obviously in model groups) and decreased in order in the other groups, which reflect different results of both acupuncture and IFN-a-2b. b.) group acupuncture preventing shows even better effect of anti hepatic fibrosis than that of group IFN-a-2b preventing, c.) both treatment groups failed to gain an idea effects. Conclusions: acupuncture may definitely perform an action of anti-hepatic fibrosis; its effect is more excellent than that of IFN-a-2b in preventing hepatic fibrosis; the mechanism of anti-hepatic fibrosis may be related to inhibit stellate cell activation by reduce (or neutralize) the expression of TGF-β1.