OBJECTIVETo investigate effects of electroacupuncture on gastric mucosal intestinal trefoil factor (ITF) gene expression in the rat of gastric mucosal injury induced by stress.

METHODSForty rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: blank group, model group, stomach channel group, gallbladder channel group. The normal group did not receive any processing, and the model group were fixed for 7 sessions and both the stomach channel group and the gallbladder channel group received 7 sessions of electro-acupuncture before modeling. The model was made by water restraint stress (WRS) for 10 hours. Index of gastric mucosal injury was detected and then the gastric mucosa tissue in each rat was taken and the expression of ITFmRNA of the tissue was detected by the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.

RESULTSThere was very significant or significant difference in the gastric mucosal injury as the stomach channel group and the gallbladder channel group compared with the model group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01); electroacupuncture had a tendency of improving the expression of gastric mucosal ITFmRNA gene; the expression of ITFmRNA in the gallbladder channel group and the stomach channel group was significantly higher than that of the model group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONThe special regulation of electroacupuncture on gastric mucosal tissue is related with the release of epidermal growth factor and the expression of intestinal trefoil factor gene.