Zhou Ying, Zhang Lin, Xia Tingting, Zhang Xuemei, Zhang Lele, Han Lifeng, Gao Xiumei
State Key Laboratory of Component-based Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China.
Instrumental Analysis & Research Center, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China.
Acupunct Med. 2025 Aug;43(4):218-232. doi: 10.1177/09645284251365650. Epub 2025 Aug 8.
Diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) is a subtype of IBS. Many patients are dissatisfied with the efficacy of drug treatment and seek complementary and alternative medical therapies, especially acupuncture treatment. In this study, we evaluated the effect of manual acupuncture (MA) on IBS-D using a rat model and investigated the underlying mechanism of action by analyzing the changes in untargeted metabolomics of plasma/liver/colon and targeted plasma lipidomics.
Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into Control, IBS-D and MA groups (n = 10 each). IBS-D/MA groups received acetic acid enemas combined with restraint stress. The Control group received saline enemas. The MA group received daily MA at ST36 for 2 weeks after modeling. Pain and stool quality were measured by the abdominal withdrawal reflex (AWR) and Bristol stool form scale (BSFS). Plasma/liver/colon samples were collected for ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)/Q-Orbitrap mass spectromy (MS) untargeted metabolomics. Plasma was also subjected to UHPLC-MS/MS targeted lipidomics.
MA treatment improved BSFS and AWR scores in IBS-D model rats, suggesting reduced intestinal hypersensitivity. Metabolomic results showed that MA impacted 18 metabolites in the plasma, liver and colon, which were mainly involved in arachidonic acid metabolism, biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, and amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism. Targeted lipidomic results showed MA restored the low levels of four medium-chain and one long-chain fatty acids to normal levels in IBS-D, suggesting that acupuncture treatment of IBS-D involves fatty acid metabolic pathways.
MA reduced markers of intestinal hypersensitivity and impacted a number of metabolic pathways in a rat model of IBS-D.
腹泻型肠易激综合征（IBS-D）是肠易激综合征的一种亚型。许多患者对药物治疗效果不满意，寻求补充和替代医学疗法，尤其是针灸治疗。在本研究中，我们使用大鼠模型评估了手动针刺（MA）对IBS-D的影响，并通过分析血浆/肝脏/结肠的非靶向代谢组学和靶向血浆脂质组学的变化来研究其潜在作用机制。
将30只雄性Sprague-Dawley大鼠分为对照组、IBS-D组和MA组（每组n = 10）。IBS-D/MA组接受醋酸灌肠联合束缚应激。对照组接受生理盐水灌肠。建模后，MA组每天在足三里穴进行针刺治疗，持续2周。通过腹部退缩反射（AWR）和布里斯托大便分类法（BSFS）测量疼痛和大便质量。收集血浆/肝脏/结肠样本用于超高效液相色谱（UHPLC）/Q-轨道阱质谱（MS）非靶向代谢组学分析。血浆还进行UHPLC-MS/MS靶向脂质组学分析。
MA治疗改善了IBS-D模型大鼠的BSFS和AWR评分，表明肠道超敏反应降低。代谢组学结果显示，MA影响了血浆、肝脏和结肠中的18种代谢物，主要涉及花生四烯酸代谢、不饱和脂肪酸生物合成以及氨基糖和核苷酸糖代谢。靶向脂质组学结果显示，MA使IBS-D中四种中链脂肪酸和一种长链脂肪酸的低水平恢复到正常水平，表明针刺治疗IBS-D涉及脂肪酸代谢途径。
在IBS-D大鼠模型中，MA降低了肠道超敏反应标志物，并影响了多个代谢途径。
