ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1638930
This article is part of the Research TopicRodent Model Organisms: Therapeutic Treatments and Drugs Interaction with the Gut Microbiome, Volume IIView all 6 articles
Comparison of Acupuncture, Moxibustion, and Pharmacotherapy in ameliorating Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Diarrhea (IBS-D)
Provisionally accepted
Peiqin Zhang1,2Yao Chen1Biyu Lai1
Shuang-Shuang Wang1Dan Li1Runlin Wen1Yaping Duan1Dan Liu1Bo Li1*
She Chang1*- 1Changsha Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine(Changsha Eighth Hospital）, Changsha, China
- 2Hunan Traditional Chinese Medical College, Zhuzhou, China
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Acupuncture, moxibustion, and pharmacotherapy are widely used for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D), but their comparative efficacy and microbial mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we evaluated therapeutic outcomes in IBS-D rats through physiological and colonic indicators and characterized gut microbiota using 16S rDNA sequencing with network and modular analyses. Our results showed that acupuncture and moxibustion more effectively normalized stool form, diarrhea index, fecal water content, and fecal pellet counts compared to pharmacotherapy, which provided partial improvement with residual symptoms such as faster colonic transit. A total of 33 microbial taxa were identified as biomarkers, with distinct profiles associated with each intervention. Specifically, acupuncture was linked to increased levels of Pseudomonas and Turicibacter, moxibustion to RF39, and pharmacotherapy to Fusobacteriota, Blautia, and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1. Furthermore, we also found that the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes was a key factor in IBS-D pathogenesis. Key genera such as Muribaculum were modulated by the interventions to alleviate symptoms. Acupuncture and moxibustion restructured gut microbiota networks to improve connectivity and clustering, while pharmacotherapy resulted in a more heterogeneous network with a higher number of negative correlations with physiological parameters. These results demonstrated that acupuncture and moxibustion achieved superior therapeutic effects through distinct remodeling of microbial networks and host–microbe associations, providing mechanistic insight into microbiota-mediated IBS-D treatment.
Keywords: Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Gut Microbiota, Moxibustion, Acupuncture, colonic characteristic
Received: 31 May 2025; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Chen, Lai, Wang, Li, Wen, Duan, Liu, Li and Chang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Bo Li, Changsha Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine(Changsha Eighth Hospital）, Changsha, China
She Chang, Changsha Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine(Changsha Eighth Hospital）, Changsha, China
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