Experimental Study on the Effect of Stress on the Upper Respiratory Tract

Research Project

Project/Area Number	63570815
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Otorhinolaryngology
Research Institution	Meiji College of Oriental Medicine
Principal Investigator	TACHIBANA Masayoshi Meiji College of Oriental Medicine, Faculty of Aupuncture and Moxibustion, Unit of Otolaryngology, Professor, 鍼灸学部, 教授 (10128712)
Project Period (FY)	1988 – 1989
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1989)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000) Fiscal Year 1989: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 1988: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
Keywords	stress / electroshock / moxibustion / rat / nasal mucosa / goblet cell / #細胞
Research Abstract	In order to investigate the effect of stress on the upper respiratory tract, the activity of goblet cell of the rat nasal mucosa under two kinds of stress was examined by the histochemical technique. Male Wistar rats weighing ca. 2OOg was dived into three groups. First group was put into stress cage and direct current of 15 volts was administrated from the tail intermittently (5 seconds with 30 seconds interval) for 60 min. Second group was stimulated by moxibustion at apex of the head 5 times under pentobarbital anesthesia. Third group was the control without any stimulation. After the decapitation under anesthesia the nasal mucosa was dissected and fixed by buffered 10 % formalin. The tissue was then stained with alcian-blue(PH 2.5) and the epithelium at the area between 6 and 8 mm from the tip was further dissected and mounted on the slide glass and observed under light microscope at x 400. The stained area was estimated by means of computer-aided image analyzer. The staining was shown to be due to secretory granules of the goblet cell by observing the thin sections of the Epon-embedded stained specimen. Thus the percentage of the stained area can be understood to reflect the secretory function of the nasal mucosa. The function was significantly larger in the electrically shocked rats and smaller in rats stimulated by moxibustion. From these results, it is now evident that stress does influence the secretory activity of upper respiratory tract. And interestingly, the direction of the influence depends on the kind of stress; uncomfortable stress increased the secretory activity of goblet cell of the rat nasal mucosa and comfortable stress caused the opposite effect. Therefore, comfortable stress such as moxibustion may be useful to counteract or minimize the noxious effect of umconfortable stress in the upper respiratory tract.