Accumulating data indicates that brain inflammation plays an important role in the pathophysiology of chronic exercise-induced fatigue. Moxibustion in traditional Chinese medicine has been found to alleviate exercise-induced fatigue. However, it remains unclear whether the effect of moxibustion is related to its anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, rats were exposed to 3-week exhaustive swimming to induce chronic exercise-induced fatigue. The body weight, exhaustive swimming time, tail suspension test and open-field test were observed. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to determine the mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1β [IL-1β], interleukin-6 [IL-6], and tumor necrosis factor-α[TNF-α]), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α concentrations. Chronic exhaustive exercise significantly reduced the body weight and exhaustive swimming time, and increased tail suspension immobility time, which were reversed by moxibustion treatment. Compared with control rats, the mRNA and protein expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in the hippocampus was significantly increased in exhaustive swimming trained rats. Moxibustion significantly decreased the level of IL-6 in the hippocampus, but not affected IL-1β and TNF-α level significantly. Our results suggested that a potential inflammatory damage in the brain may be involved during chronic exhaustive exercise-induced fatigue. Moxibustion could attenuate the inflammatory impairment in exercise-induced fatigue, which might be mediated by inhibition of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 levels in the brain region.

中文翻译：

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艾灸减少了慢性运动诱发的疲劳大鼠海马中的炎症反应。

越来越多的数据表明，脑部炎症在慢性运动诱发的疲劳的病理生理中起着重要作用。人们发现，传统的中医灸法可以减轻运动引起的疲劳。然而，还不清楚艾灸的作用是否与其抗炎特性有关。在这项研究中，大鼠暴露于3周的力竭游泳中，以诱发慢性运动引起的疲劳。观察体重，详尽的游泳时间，尾部悬架测试和野外测试。实时聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）用于测定促炎细胞因子（白介素-1β[IL-1β]，白介素6 [IL-6]和肿瘤坏死因子-α[TNF-α]的mRNA表达。 ]），并使用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）检测IL-1β，IL-6和TNF-α的浓度。长期彻底的锻炼可显着减少体重和疲惫的游泳时间，并增加尾部悬架固定时间，而艾灸治疗可以逆转这种情况。与对照组相比，力竭游泳训练的大鼠海马中IL-1β，IL-6和TNF-α的mRNA和蛋白表达显着增加。艾灸显着降低海马中IL-6的水平，但不显着影响IL-1β和TNF-α的水平。我们的结果表明，慢性力竭性运动诱发的疲劳可能涉及大脑潜在的炎症损伤。艾灸可以减轻运动引起的疲劳中的炎症损伤，这可能是通过抑制脑区域促炎性细胞因子IL-6的水平介导的。