Abdominal VNS has the advantage of not causing cardiac and respiratory side effects associated with cervical VNS. The aim of the study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of abdominal VNS in a rat model of rheumatoid arthritis. Previously, we have shown that abdominal VNS reduces symptoms of a rat model of inflammatory bowel disease.

A first-in-human clinical trial is currently underway to investigate the safety and efficacy of abdominal VNS as a treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. We are expanding our neuromodulation research to investigate whether we can record spontaneous inflammation-induced vagus nerve activity as the next step for developing an adaptive abdominal VNS system for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. We have demonstrated that abdominal VNS causes no cardiac or respiratory off-target effects that are associated with cervical VNS, and it has anti-inflammatory effects in rat models of inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

The effects of abdominal VNS on the body are not well understood compared to cervical VNS. This protocol may help to establish experimental protocols for testing the effect of abdominal VNS on different physiological parameters in healthy animals or inflammatory conditions such as systemic lupus and chronic kidney disease.