| Summary: | 博士 === 中國醫藥學院 === 中國醫學研究所 === 90 === According to the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), different acupoints have different effects. Through the meridian theory, Chinese physician can get the acupoints for disease treatment via following the meridian and/or far from the focus of disease. Aim of this study is to compare 2 Hz electro-stimulating Zhongwan/Gwanyuan with bilateral Zusanli acupoints, using the change of plasma glucose as an indicator to prove the theory of acupuncture, and compare the differences of the hypoglycemic mechanism between both areas of electro acupuncture (EA) moreover. In this study, male experimental animals were divided into adrenalectomy (ADX) group and sham group as control randomly. They were stimulated by 2 Hz EA to observe the changes of plasma glucose at Zhongwan/Gwanyuan or bilateral Zusanli acupoints in rats and mice. ELISA was applied to detect the change of plasma β-endorphin and insulin of rats for exploring the relationship with the changed plasma glucose simultaneously. To investigate the specific character in acupoint, we compared bilateral Zusanli with nonacupoint of lateral lower leg, and used the change of plasma glucose level, β-endorphin and insulin as indicator. Streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats were applied to investigate the role of insulin in Zusanli EA. To continue, the blocking methods of opioid receptor were applied to contrast the mechanism of different acupoints. If the hypoglycemic effect of acupoint had not been blocked completely, it would be added p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) to search the influence beside endogenous opioid peptides (EOP).As a result, Regardless of rats and mice, there was a significant hypoglycemic effect in Zhongwan/Gwanyuan and bilateral Zusanli acupoints by 2 Hz EA, and plasma β-endorphin and insulin increased remarkably. The hypoglycemic effect disappeared after electro stimulating Zhongwan/Gwanyuan with 2 Hz EA, and partial lowering plasma glucose effect was observed at bilateral Zusanli due to adrenalectomy, But plasma β-endorphin and insulin no significant change after stimulating both sites. However, we compared nonacupoint with Zusanli that showed acupoint specific character. No significant lowering plasma glucose effect was also observed in STZ-induced diabetc rats stimulated by Zusanli EA. The blocking methods on opioid receptors can make to vanish the hypoglycemic effect in Zhongwan/Gwanyuan completely, but only partially block in Zusanli stimulated by 2 Hz EA. Therefore adding PCPA pretreated, that can be totally blocked the hypoglycemic effect of Zusanli EA in rats and mice. Further sufficient naloxonazine also can block the hypoglycemic effect of Zhongwan/Gwanyuan with 2 Hz EA, and naloxone or naloxonazine can block the encouraged plasma insulin also.
According to our results, we suggest that we can challenge large amount of plasma β-endorphin coming from adrenal gland and activating μ1-opioid receptor to stimulate plasma insulin secretion, leading to the hypoglycemic effect after 2 Hz EA at zhongwan/Gwanyuan acupoint. Partial lowering plasma glucose effect may come from the adrenal gland, and serotonin could involve in the hypoglycemic mechanism excluding EOP pathway participating in the electro stimulating bilateral Zusanli with the same frequency. This study illustrates the theory of acupuncture in TCM, i.e., different acupoints have different effects, and in acupoint specific way contrast to nonacupoint. The acupoint far from the focus may follow the meridian, which is meaningful in acupuncture therapy.
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