Mechanism Of The Sympathetic Nerve In The Moxibustion Treatment Of Experimental Ra

Objective: Damaging the sympathetic nerve of Hypothalamus and spleen in Rat with sympathetic nerve resection to study its effects and mechanism when the rheumatoid arthritis rats are treated by moxibustion. Method: take the Adjuvant Arthritis rats as animal model and the wheat seed moxibustion as the therapy for RA, divid adult rats into normal group, model group, moxibusition group, microInjection group with 6-OHDA in anterior hypothalamic area, spleen sympathetic nerve resection group and their false operation groups, and make use of Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, radio-immunity test, hybridization in situ, micro-injection to study therapeutic mechanism of moxibustion to rheumatoid arthritis from different points of view (such as pathology, neuroendocrinology, immuology, molecular biology, etc) and various asministrative levels (body, tissue, cell, molecule, gene). Result: (1) Moxibustion can significantly release inflammation of rats; (2) decrease the content of interleukin-1 and alpha Tumor necrosis factor(TNF- α) which are rising in RA rats, decrease the alpha Tumor necrosis factor messenger ribonucleic acid (TNF- α mRNA) expression, raise the content of interleukin-2 and lymphocyte transformation rate which are reducing in RA rats. (3)The effect of moxibustion can be reversed by micro-injection group with 6-OHDA in anterior hypothalamic area or spleen sympathetic nerve resection. Conclusion: Moxibustion has certain effects for RA, and this is partly induced by sympathetic nerve of Hypothalamus and spleen, As one part of Neuroimmunoendocrinology net, Hypothalamus- Sympathetic-Immune axis participate in regulation of moxibustion for RA.