Effect and mechanism of Cantharides vesiculation moxibustion on hematopoietic function in mice treated with cyclophosphamide

Abstract

To observe the effects of Cantharides vesiculation moxibustion on hematopoietic function and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) secreted by peritoneal macrophages in mice treated with chemotherapy. The mice treated with Cyclophosphamide (CTX) were randomly divided into 6 groups. Ten mice in the control group were not treated. The mice in the vesiculation I–IV groups received moxibustion at Dazhui (GV 14), Shenshu (BL 23) and Zusanli (ST 36) with different concentrations of Cantharides tincture. The mice in the grain moxibustion group were treated with moxa cone of wheat-grain size at these points. The other 10 normal mice were adopted as control. The peripheral blood leukocytes count, bone marrow nucleated cells count, spleen index and the ability of peritoneal-macrophages-induced GM-CSF were detected at different stages. CTX could cause significant bone marrow suppression, significant decrease of bone marrow nucleated cell counts, peripheral blood leukocytes and spleen index, and reduction of peritoneal macrophages induced GM-CSF in the mice. Vesiculation moxibustion at Dazhui (GV 14), Shenshu (BL 23) and Zusanli (ST 36), not only reduced the bone marrow suppression, promoted bone marrow hyperplasia, increased bone marrow nucleated cell count, enhanced the number of the peripheral blood white blood cell (WBC) and shorted low sustained period of WBC chemotherapy-induced, but also enhanced the ability of macrophage induced GM-CSF. Cantharides vesiculation moxibustion has good resistance to the bone marrow suppression in mice treated with chemotherapy, and enhance the ability of the mouse peritoneal macrophages induced GM-CSF.