Electroacupuncture ameliorates visceral hypersensitivity and negative emotions by regulating paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus and colonic corticotropin-releasing factor signaling

Figure 6 Graphical abstract. Brain-colon crosstalk may mediate the pathological process of diarrhoeal irritable bowel syndrome and the mechanism of action of electroacupuncture. We propose that chronic restraint combined with glacial acetic acid enema activated paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)-ergic neurons, increased peripheral CRF, increased CRF-receptor 1 in colonic mast cells, resulted in mast cell degranulation, and then upregulated protease-activated receptor 2 and transient potential receptor vanilloid 1 in gut neurons, which ultimately induced negative emotions and visceral hypersensitivity; however, electroacupuncture reversed this phenomenon. CRF: Corticotropin-releasing factor.