He Qi-da hokida@163.com 1 2 Huang Miao-sen 2170330008@fjtcm.edu.cn 1 2 Zhang Long-bin zlbinn@163.com 1 Shen Jia-cheng shenjiacheng@163.com 1 Lian Lin-yu 515918928@163.com 1 2 Zhang Yuan zyzjzyyj@163.com 1 3 Chen Bao-hua 24520181154730@stu.xmu.edu.cn 1 Liu Cai-chun liucaichun714@163.com 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4825-0725 Qian Lin-chao lcqian@xmu.edu.cn 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4860-7533 Liu Mi newmean9722@qq.com 3 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5870-4842 Yang Zong-bao yangzb@xmu.edu.cn 1 Selvan Senthamil R. 1 Cancer Research Center School of Medicine Xiamen University Xiamen 361005 China xmu.edu.cn 2 College of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Fuzhou 350122 China fjtcm.edu.cn 3 College of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Changsha 410208 China hnctcm.edu.cn 2019 19 12 2019 2019 08 05 2019 13 08 2019 27 11 2019 19 12 2019 2019 Copyright © 2019 Qi-da He et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), moxibustion had been used for thousands of years. Many clinical case reports and scientific studies had proved that moxibustion had a good effect in treating acute gastric ulcer (AGU). Some studies had shown that the relative content and species of bacteria in the intestinal would be changed when gastric mucosal injury happened. However, there was little research on the effect of intestinal microbiome with AGU rats that were treating by moxibustion. This study is aimed at analyzing the effect of fecal microbiome in rats with AGU by the 16S rDNA sequencing technology. Male SD rats were established by orally feeding once with 70% ethanol at 4 ml/kg except the control group, then treated by moxibustion in the stomach meridian group (“Liangmen,” “Zusanli”) and the gallbladder meridian group (“Riyue,” “Yanglingquan”) for 5 days. The 16S rDNA sequencing technology analysis of feces combined with histopathological methods and molecular biological detection methods was used to evaluate the therapeutic mechanism of moxibustion on AGU. AGU brought cause changes in the number and species of intestinal bacteria. Moxibustion on stomach meridian group could reduce the area of gastric mucosal injury and regulate the relative content of GAS and EGF. Moreover, moxibustion on the stomach meridian group could increase the relative content and species of beneficial bacteria in the intestine of rats with AGU. The relative abundance of intestinal probiotics was significantly upregulated in Alphaproteobacteria, Actinomycetales, and Bacillales. In addition, moxibustion might promote the repair of gastric mucosal injury by increasing the number and species of beneficial bacteria in the intestine. National Natural Science Foundation of China 81973934 81574082 Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province 2018JJ2295 Hunan Province University Innovation Platform Open Fund Project 18K066
