"Acupuncture has been used to treat gastrointestinal symptoms in China for more than 3000 years. However, the mechanism of the beneficial effects of acupuncture remains unknown. Strain gauge transducers were implanted on the serosal surface of the stomach to record circular muscle contractions in thiobutabarbital anesthetized rats," researchers in the United States report.

"Acupuncture on the right lower abdomen caused a transient relaxation of the stomach. Acupuncture induced gastric relaxations were abolished by guanethidine, propranolol, splanchnic ganglionectomy, spinal cord transection, and spinomedullary transection. In contrast, N-G-nitro-L-arginine, phentolamine, truncal vagotomy, and pontomedullary transection had no effect. Acupuncture increased the number of c-Fos immunopositive cells at the ventrolateral medulla (VLM)," wrote H. Tada and colleagues, Veterans Administration Medical Center.

"It is concluded that acupuncture induced gastric relaxations are mediated via the somatosympathetic reflex. Its afferent limb is composed of abdominal cutaneous and muscle afferent nerves. Its efferent limb is the gastric sympathetic nerve and the reflex center is within the medulla. VLM neurons may play an important role in mediating this reflex," the researchers concluded.

Tada and colleagues published their study in Digestive Diseases and Sciences (Neural mechanism of acupuncture-induced gastric relaxations in rats. Digest Dis Sci, 2003;48(1):59-68).

The contact person for this report is T. Takahashi, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Surgery Service 112, Durham, NC 27705, USA.

To subscribe to the journal Digestive Diseases and Sciences, contact the publisher: Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishing, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013, USA.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Acupuncture, Neurology, Stomach Muscle, Relaxation, Somatosympathetic Reflex and Gastroenterology. This article was prepared by Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week editors from staff and other reports.

From Newsrx.com.