| Objective: Obesity is a modern disease that poses a serious threat to human health.Our research team has found in previous studies that clinically acupuncture combined with moxibustion through warming the kidney and strengthening the spleen have significant efficacy on obese patients.Experimentally,guided by the method of consolidating the foundation of human bodies and moderating the spleen,the weight and blood lipid of obese rats after acupuncture intervention both have distinct improvement.Tests show that obese patients or rats have different degrees of disorder on the structure of their intestinal flora.Acupuncture alone is effective in regulating obesity,possibly by adjusting the balance of intestinal microecology and thereby affecting the body’s energy metabolism to realize weight loss.This research aims to further explore the influence of moxibustion on intestinal flora,and provide experimental data support for clinical treatment of obesity in traditional Chinese medicine.Methods: To establish a food-induced obese rat model,male SD rats were fed a high-fat diet.From the rats with successful modeling,7 were selected as model control group and 7 were moxibustion treatment group,and 7 rats fed with common diet were blank control group.On the 2nd day after successful modeling,the moxibustion treatment group was treated with moxibustion on four acupoints of Zhongqi,Tianshu,Shenque,Guanyuan.The treatment group was bundled up and fixed for the same length of time as the blank control group and model control group.During the treatment,the original feed was fed,and the weight and length(not including tails)of the rats were measured regularly.After 8 weeks of treatment,three groups of rats were taken to obtain rat stool samples,visceral fat samples and blood lipid samples.The weight,length and the weight of fat samples of each group were analyzed by statistics.The blood lipid and inflammatory factors were measured by Elise method.The intestinal flora of rat stool samples was analyzed by 16 s Amplicon technique.Results:(1)After moxibustion intervention,the body weight and Lee’s index of the rats in the moxibustion treatment group were significantly lower than those in the model control group(P<0.05).(2)The visceral fat wet weight,serum inflammatory factors and serum lipids in the model control group were significantly higher than those in the blank control group,with significant difference(P<0.05).(3)After moxibustion intervention,the visceral fat weight,serum inflammatory factors and serum lipids of the moxibustion treatment group were significantly lower than the model control group,with significant difference(P<0.05).(4)Compared with the blank control group and the moxibustion treatment group,the intestinal flora of the model control group had a large difference in species composition and lower richness and uniformity of distribution of each species.Compared with the model control group,the moxibustion treatment group had more beneficial bacteria in its intestinal flora,among which the proportion of Bacteroides is high and the proportion of thickwalled bacteria is low.Conclusion: A high-fat diet may cause weight gain,increased fat around the viscera,and cause disorders of serum inflammatory factors,blood lipids,and intestinal flora.Moxibustion treatment with "Wenyang Huashi" method can significantly reduce the body weight and Lee’s index of obese rats,and has a good weight-loss effect,which can be used in clinical practice.The structure of in-testinal flora in the development of obesity is of great significance.The moxibustion intervention can regulate the structure of the intestinal flora of obese rats and improve the diversity,richness as well as the uniformity of distribution of the species in the flora and modify the difference between the flora. |
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