Ea Zusanli Endotoxin Shock And Chemical Gastric Ulcer

Endotoxin-induced shock is a model for studying septicemia, a potentially fatal condition caused by infection of blood. As a systemic response to the cell wall of gram-negative bacteria, endotoxin-induced shock is characterized by hypotension, fever and the release of proinflammatory cytokines. Acupuncture has traditionally been used for the treatment of a wide variety of conditions, including fever, inflammation and infection. There have been numerous reports concerning the antipyretic effect of acupuncture in endotoxin-induced fever, but the efficacy and mechanism of acupuncture in prevention of endotoxin-induced shock are unknown. As the first step of our investigation, the currently on-going study examined the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on prolonging the survival time of animals subjected to endotoxin-induced shock.The data of our experiments demonstrated that, acupuncture prevented the hypotensive and tachycardiac responses induced by endotoxin, in addition to prolonging the survival time of the animals. These preliminary results are the first experimental evidence showing that acupuncture is capable of attenuating endotoxin-induced shock and maintaining the hemodynamic balances in septicemia. The neurohormonal pathway mediating the effect of acupuncture remains speculative. We have recently found thatacupuncture activates the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway during inhibition of local inflammation [1,2]. It is conceivable that acupuncture activates this pathway to attenuate endotoxin-induced shock by inhibiting the release of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF and IL-IB.