95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1541728
This article is part of the Research Topic Novel therapeutic targets in autoimmune diseases: intestinal microbiota and adaptive immunity regulation View all articles
Acupuncture Attenuates Experimental Autoimmune Thyroiditis by Modulating Intestinal Microbiota and Palmitic Acid Metabolism
Provisionally accepted- Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China
Autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) is a common and chronic autoimmune disease. Recent evidence indicates that serum metabolites and dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota are associated with AIT, with the underlying mechanism involving the apoptosis of thyroid follicular epithelial cells. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms of acupuncture (Acu) treatment in rats with established experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT) and evaluated the relationship between microbiota and serum metabolites after Acu treatment.The results revealed that Acu could effectively improve thyroid dysfunction and histopathological changes in EAT rats. Following Acu treatment, the content of B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) increased, while the levels of Bax and the proportion of cleaved caspase-3 in thyroid tissue decreased. This may be associated with the amelioration of intestinal microbiota dysbiosis and metabolic disorders in EAT rats. Acu mitigated EATinduced metabolic disorders by regulating the metabolism of palmitoleic acid, and adjusted intestinal microbiota dysbiosis by increasing the abundance of Prevotella. Furthermore, the microbiota (Prevotella) and metabolites (Cyclohexanecarboxylic acid, Tetradecanedioic acid) may serve as co-targets for both Acu and Selenium yeast treatment in EAT. In summary, Acu improves the apoptosis of thyroid follicular epithelial cells in rats in EAT model, and its mechanism may be related to intestinal microbiota and metabolism.
Keywords: autoimmune thyroiditis, Acupuncture, intestinal microbiota, Metabolomics, Apoptosis
Received: 08 Dec 2024; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Qi, Li, Fan, Liu, Li, Chen, Wu, Zhang and Xu. 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:
Fengjun Qi, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.