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Electroacupuncture Attenuates Liver Inflammation in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Rats

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Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a major health concern worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect and mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats induced by high-fat diet (HFD). A model of nonalcoholic fatty liver in rats induced by high fat was established. Rats in the control group were fed standard diet. The rats in model group and EA group were fed with HFD. From the fifth week, the rats in EA group were treated with EA (“FengLongXue,” “YinLingQuanXue,” “SanYinJiaoXue”) for 2 weeks respectively. EA could significantly reduce serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum triglyceride (TG), serum cholesterol (TC), and serum cytokines, and improve liver histopathological changes in rats. EA also could regulate the levels of Sirt1/NF-κB pathway in rat liver. EA relieved liver injury in NAFLD rats, and its mechanism may be related to the regulation of Sirt1/NF-κB pathway in rats. This is the first report that electroacupuncture alleviates liver inflammatory reaction of nonalcoholic fatty liver by enhancing Sirt1 expression and inhibiting NLRP3/NF-kB signal pathway.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

    Bingquan Ma, Peng Li, Hengyuan An & Zhiming Song

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  1. Bingquan Ma
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  2. Peng Li
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  3. Hengyuan An
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  4. Zhiming Song
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Contributions

B.M performed experiments; H.A drafted manuscript; Z.S analyzed data; and P.L conceived and designed research and edited and revised manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bingquan Ma or Peng Li.

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Ma, B., Li, P., An, H. et al. Electroacupuncture Attenuates Liver Inflammation in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Rats. Inflammation 43, 2372–2378 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10753-020-01306-w

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