Parkinson's disease constipation effect of electroacupuncture at ST25 through colonic motility and enteric neuropathology

Li-Zhe-Xiong Song; Yuan Li; Xu Qian; Na Xu; Zhi Yu; Jing-Wen Dai; Bin Xu; Xuan-Ming Hu

doi:10.3389/fneur.2022.1092127

Parkinson's disease constipation effect of electroacupuncture at ST25 through colonic motility and enteric neuropathology

Front Neurol. 2023 Jan 11:13:1092127. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1092127. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Li-Zhe-Xiong Song^{1

2}, Yuan Li^{1

2}, Xu Qian^{1

2}, Na Xu^{1

2}, Zhi Yu^{1

2}, Jing-Wen Dai¹, Bin Xu^{1

2}, Xuan-Ming Hu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Medicine Research of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
² School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
³ Acupuncture Department, Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Affiliated to Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Background: The enteric nervous system (ENS) plays a central role in developing Parkinson's disease (PD) constipation, and the regulation of the ENS may be a key component in treating PD constipation. Electroacupuncture (EA) can effectively treat constipation symptoms in PD, but research on its specific mechanisms, especially in terms of ENS, is relatively lacking. Therefore, we investigated whether EA at ST25 promotes the restoration of ENS structure and colonic motor function in the rotenone-induced PD constipation rat model.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated constipation symptoms by stool characteristics, excretion and water volume, and whole gut transit time and observed colonic motility regulation through colonic motion detection and pathological changes in the colonic myenteric nervous plexus by transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence staining.

Results: EA significantly improved the constipation symptoms and positively adjusted the colonic motility in rotenone-induced PD constipation rats. At the same time, EA reversed the rotenone-induced colonic myenteric nervous plexus injury and regulated the ratio of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that EA treatment of PD constipation may be mediated through the adjustment of ENS.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease constipation; colonic motility; electroacupuncture; enteric nervous system; neuropathology.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Number. 81904279) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Number. BK20190136). The authors' work reported here was also supported by grants from the Nanjing young talents training plan of traditional Chinese Medicine (Number. NJSZYYQNRC-2020-HXM).