Moxibustion promoting repair of gastric mucosa in rats with stress-induced gastric mucosal injury and up-regulating the expression of p-ERK1/2

Objective: To explore the effect and cellular mechanism of moxibustion on stress-induced gastric mucosal injury in rats.Methods: 48 SD rats were randomly allocated to blank,model,acupoints moxibustion(AM) and non-acupoints moxibustion(N-AM) groups.The gastric mucosal lesions model was developed by restraint and water immersion stress.Pre-moxibustion was applied to 'Zusanli'(ST 36) and 'Zhongwan'(RN 12),'Pishu'(BL 20) and 'Weishu'(BL 21) alternately once everyday for 8 days before modeled.The ulcer index(UI) was evaluated by Guth method,the expressions of p-ERK1/2(phosphorylating extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2) determined by immunohistochemistry and western blot assay.Results: Compared with blank group,UI index and the expressions of p-ERK1/2 increased significantly(P0.01,P0.05) in model group.Compared with model and N-AM groups,UI index decreased markedly(P0.01) and the expressions of p-ERK1/2 increased significantly(P0.01) in AM group.Conclusion: Pre-moxibustion at ST 36,RN 12,BL 20 and BL 21 could up-regulate p-ERK1/2 protein expression in gastric mucosa of rats with gastric mucosal injury,which possibly contributed to its effect in promoting repair of gastric mucosa.