In China, moxibustion is reported to be useful and has few side effects for chronic fatigue syndrome, but its mechanisms are largely unknown.
More recently, the focus has been on the wealth of information supporting stress as a factor in chronic fatigue syndrome, and
largely concerns dysregulation in the stress-related hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. In the present study, we aimed to determine the
effect of moxibustion on behavioral symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome rats and examine possible mechanisms. Rats were subjected to
a combination of chronic restraint stress and forced swimming to induce chronic fatigue syndrome. The acupoints Guanyuan (CV4) and
Zusanli (ST36, bilateral) were simultaneously administered moxibustion. Untreated chronic fatigue syndrome rats and normal rats were
used as controls. Results from the forced swimming test, open field test, tail suspension test, real-time PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay, and western blot assay showed that moxibustion treatment decreased mRNA expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone in
the hypothalamus, and adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone levels in plasma, and markedly increased progranulin mRNA and
protein expression in the hippocampus. These findings suggest that moxibustion may relieve the behavioral symptoms of chronic fatigue
syndrome, at least in part, by modulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and upregulating hippocampal progranulin.