OBJECTIVETo probe the mechanism of electroacupuncture at points "Weibingfang" in treatment of acute gastric mucosal lesion.

METHODSForty Wistar rats of sanitary degree were randomly divided into 4 groups, normal group, model group, sham-model group and Weibingfang group, 10 rats in each group. The acute gastric mucosal lesion model was made by intragastric perfusion of anhydrous alcohol. The Weibingfang group were treated by electroacupuncture at "Neiguan" (PC 6), "Zhongwan" (CV 12) and "Zusanli" (ST 36) with sparse-dense wave, frequency of 10-30 Hz, current intensity of 2 mA, for 20 min. One hour after the treatment, the blood from the abdominal aorta and the gastric mucosa tissue were taken, and serum epidermal growth factor (EGF) level and epidermic growth factor receptor mRNA (EGFR mRNA) expression in the gastric mucosa were detected with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) respectively.

RESULTSThere were significant differences in blood EGF level (41.62 +/- 12.58) ng/L and EGFR mRNA expression (0.78 +/- 0.03) in the model group were significantly different from [(60.37 +/- 12.01) ng/L and 0.55 +/- 0.04] in the normal group and [(61.21 +/- 13.46) ng/L and 0.53 +/- 0.05] in the sham-model group (P < 0.05); after electroacupuncture, blood EGF level (70.59 +/- 10.14) ng/L increased and the EGFR mRNA expression (1.18 +/- 0.02) in the gastric mucosa was up-regulated with a significant differences as compared with those in the model group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPoint "Weibingfang" can promote proliferation, differentiation and migration of the gastric mucosal epidermic cells to repair the gastric mucosal lesion.