[Moxibustion improved gastric ulcer by reducing contents of corticotrophin-releasing hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone in serum and hypothalamus-pituitary tissues in rats with stress-induced gastric ulcer].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of moxibustion of "Zhongwan" (CV12) and "Zusanli" (ST36) on histopathological changes of the gastric mucosa and contents of corticotropin-releasing hormone(CRH) and adrenocorticotrophic hormone(ACTH) in the serum, hypothalamus and pituitary tissues in rats with stress-induced gastric ulcer(SGU), so as to reveal its mechanisms underlying improvement of SGU. METHODS: A total of 28 male SD rats were randomly divided into blank control, model, moxibustion, and medication groups, with 7 rats in each group. The SGU model was established by water immersion restraint stress for 3 h. Moxibustion was applied to "Zhongwan"(CV12) and bilateral "Zusanli" (ST36) for 20 min, once a day for 5 days, and rats of the medication group were treated by gavage of Omeprazole enteric-coated tablets (0.2 mg/kg) once a day for 5 days. The gastric mucosal damage index (ulcer index, UI) was measured to assess the injury severity according to Guth's me-thods. Histopathological changes of the gastric mucosa were determined by H．E. staining. The contents of CRH in serum and hypothalamus and ACTH in serum and pituitary gland tissue were assayed by using ELISA. RESULTS: >0.05)．. CONCLUSION: Moxibustion can relieve gastric mucosal injury induced by stress in water immersion restraint stress rats, which may be associated with its effects in down-regulating the levels of CRH and ACTH in se-rum, hypothalamus and pituitary tissues (inhibition of activities of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis)．.