Effect of acupuncture combined with Chinese medicine on the expression of interstitial cells of Cajal, substance P and nerve nitric oxide synthase in diabetic mice with gastroparesis antrum

ObjectiveTo explore the effect of acupuncture combined with Chinese medicine on expression of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC), substance P (SP) and nerve nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in diabetic gastroparesis mice.MethodsEighty Kunming male mice were randomly divided into normal group (group A, 15 mice), diabetic gastroparesis model mice group (group B, 12 mice), acupuncture combined with Chinese medicine group (group C, 12 mice), Chinese medicine group (group D, 13 mice) and western medicine group (group E, 13 mice). The mice were intraperitoneally injected with steptozotocin and fed with high-fat diet-induced irregular except the normal group mice, that made mouse model of diabetic gastroparesis. And then, the ACM group were treated by acupuncture at the acupoints of Housanli ( ST 36) and Zhōngwăn ( CV 12) combined with Chinese medicine, the CM group were only treated by Chinese medicine; the WM group were treated by domperidone and vitamin B 6. Numbers and expression of ICC, SP and nNOS were detected by immunohistochemical methods.ResultsAfter treatment, compared with normal group, ICC and SP indexes of model group were significantly reduced. Compared with model group, all indexes in ACM and CM groups were improved significantly (P<0.05, P<0.01), but only the positive area and average optical density value in c-Kit and SP in WM group increased obviously (P<0.05). Compared with ACM group, no significant difference in c-Kit and SP of CM group were observed (P>0.05), but expression of nNOS were increased markedly (P<0.01). Besides, c-Kit and SP expressions of WM group were significantly induced was increased remarkably (P<0.01).ConclusionAcupuncture combined with Chinese medicine have much better therapeutic effects for diabetic gastroparesis mice, which may be due to repairing ICC damage, upregulating the expression of SP and lowering the expression of nNOS.