construction of an experimental platform device for moxibustion

基于草药蛋糕治疗大鼠肾功能衰竭大鼠的艾灸平台

Moxibustion appeared with the application of fire. Ancient doctors accidentally found that some parts of the fire-burning body could relieve the symptoms of discomfort. After long-term practice, &#34;Artemisiae Argyi Folium&#34; was gradually selected as the main moxibustion material1. Moxibustion is one of the important components of traditional Chinese medicine, and when juxtaposed with traditional Chinese medicine decoction and acupoint acupuncture, these three major traditional Chinese medicine therapies are widely used in many diseases.
Chinese doctors often used moxibustion to treat diseases as early as the period of Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor&#39;s Inner Classic). Artemisiae Argyi Folium is a type of Chinese herbal medicine with the function of warming meridians to stop bleeding, dispelling colds, and relieving pain. It is commonly used in the external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine and can also be used in the treatment of traditional Chinese medicine decoction. Moxibustion is a kind of external therapy2 wherein moxa or other drugs are placed on acupoints on the body surface to burn and use the mild heat of moxibustion fire and the effect of drugs to treat diseases3.
As one of the common methods of treatment, moxibustion has been widely used in clinical practice. With the continuous expansion in moxibustion therapy, a growing number of studies have investigated the mechanism of moxibustion and carried out many animal experiments4,5.
The moxibustion method can be classified as direct moxibustion and indirect moxibustion. The method of placing moxibustion on the body&#39;s skin is called direct moxibustion. Indirect moxibustion separates the surface of the moxa cone and the acupoints with drugs or other materials. Moxibustion can treat various diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome6, chronic fatigue syndrome7, and knee osteoarthritis8.
This paper mainly discusses the mechanism of herbal-cake-separated-moxibustion. Herbal-cake-separated-moxibustion belongs to the indirect moxibustion method, in which a moxa cone is placed on the medicinal cake to apply moxibustion. Current studies have shown that the infrared and warming effects produced by moxa cone burning, the chemical composition of moxa leaf tar, and acupoint stimulation can achieve disease prevention and treatment9 by increasing the penetration of drugs into acupoints. Therefore, herbal-cake-separated-moxibustion mainly produces a &#34;comprehensive effect&#34; through moxibustion, drugs, and acupoints10.
Previous studies show that moxibustion is an effective method for treating CRF11,12,13,14,15, but the underlying mechanism is still undefined. We have been working on clinical and animal research on CRF. At present, we are conducting a moxibustion experimental study on CRF rats based on herbal-cake-separated-moxibustion-mediated protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) signaling pathway of endoplasmic reticulum stress. Through this animal experiment, we aim to preliminarily explain the potential mechanism of moxibustion in treating chronic kidney disease. In this experiment, the treatment of herbal-cake-separated moxibustion of rats&#160;is a key operation.
In the previous experiment16, the lid of the rearing cage was used to bind and fix the rats. To protect the operator, the rats need to be anesthetized before binding. However, Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats are easy to fear and startle. The binding operation can easily cause restlessness in the rats. Problems such as poor posture fixation of rats, deviation of acupoint positioning, increased experiment time, and operator injury often occurred.
In addition, if the binding is too tight, it can easily cause breathing difficulties in rats, which is not conducive to animal welfare. If the binding is too loose, the rats are prone to struggle and move their bodies, causing moxibustion cones to fall and burn their skin, which affects the experimental results. Based on the literature, animal experiments still involve binding16,17,18, and most experimental devices can only be fixed, hindering the implementation of other techniques such as moxibustion19. Therefore, achieving the integration of fixation and moxibustion in the experimental device while ensuring animal welfare and experimental specifications and efficiency has become one of the focus areas for investigators.

作者聚焦：了解草药蛋糕分离艾灸对肾病大鼠的影响

采用中药蛋糕分离艾灸治疗慢性肾功能衰竭大鼠

We studied the effect of herbal-cake-separated moxibustion on chronic renal fails rats. This experiment tries to answer the mechanism of herbal-cake-separated moxibustion. The advantage of this protocol is that the rats are moxibusting unbundled and non-anesthesic conditions, making animal experiments close to clinical practice.The application of moxibustion platform not only protects the animal welfare of rats, but also reduce the moxibustion operation process in the save the time and energy of operators, and promotes the development of animal moxibustion experiment to a certain extent. In the future, our laboratory will further expand the scope of use of the platform, explore the acupuncture effect of the experimental rats. After using the rats and under the same conditions, carry out a comparative study on the effects of moxibustion with the device and other moxibustion methods in rats.

灸灸实验平台装置的建设

要开始制造该设备，请使用防打板材料和木板。为了构造主机架，用防打板制作设备的底座，其白色表面尺寸为 52 x 23.5 厘米。用60厘米高的实木建造高架平台。在高架平台上方放置五个放置槽。用间隔板将放置槽分开，间隔板对应于站立位置的大鼠前肢和后肢之间的距离。接下来，将两条不锈钢条固定在放置槽的顶部，每条都有 15 个用于固定组件的孔。固定条的三个孔对应每个插槽，用于固定梅花手柄螺丝和移动软管。相邻孔之间的距离为 7 厘米。将每个放置槽的上端与可升降的隔热网络连接，该隔热网络由镀锌板框架包围。将可调节的梅花手柄螺丝放置在由304钢制成的隔热网络的两端。将 304 不锈钢圆形网材料插入隔热网中间。将不锈钢活动软管的底端用不锈钢固定条固定，上端用管夹连接板固定。将不锈钢艾灸夹连接到管夹连接板上，同时固定 8 到 10 条艾条以进行艾灸。

construction-of-an-experimental-platform-device-for-moxibustion

Research

JoVE Journal

Medicine

Construction of an Experimental Platform Device for Moxibustion

Using Herbal-Cake-Separated Moxibustion for the Treatment of Rats with Chronic Renal Failure

In the process of moxibustion in clinical practice, subjects need to be in a stable mood and comfortable posture to avoid problems such as moxa ash ...