ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the preventive and therapeutic effects of vesiculation moxibustion on rat hepatic fibrosis (HF).Methods Thirty rats were randomly allocated to treatment, model and control groups, 10 rats each. A rat model of HF was made by intraperitoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride. At three weeks after model making, the treatment group was treated by vesiculation moxibustion 6 hrs twice a week, for a total of 4 weeks. Body weight, liver wet weight, liver index, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) contents, and serum and liver typeⅢ procollagen (PCⅢ), typeⅣ collagen (Ⅳ-C), hyaluronic acid (HA) and laminin (LN) contents were measured in every group of rats.Results There were statistically significant differences in HF severity grade and HF tissue collagen analysis indices between the model group of rats and the treatment group or the control group (P<0.01,P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in body weight, liver wet weight and liver index between the model and control groups of rats (P<0.01). There were statistically significant differences in liver wet weight and liver index between the treatment and model groups of rats (P<0.01). There were statistically significant differences in serum ALT and AST contents, and serum and liver PCⅢ,Ⅳ-C, HA and LN contents between the model and control groups of rats (P<0.01,P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in serum ALT and AST contents, and serum and liverⅣ-C, HA and LN contents between the treatment and model groups of rats (P<0.01,P<0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in serum PCⅢ content between the treatment and model groups of rats (P<0.01).Conclusion Vesiculation moxibustion has some preventive and therapeutic effects on rat hepatic fibrosis.