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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Feb 15, 2026; 17(2): 114252
Published online Feb 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i2.114252
Published online Feb 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i2.114252
Electroacupuncture protects gastric Cajal cells by reducing macrophage pyroptosis in diabetic gastroparesis
Ming-Wei Fan, Jin-Lan Tian, Shu-Hui Zhang, Zi-Jian Zhao, Xin-Ru Liu, Yan Chen, Department of Gastroenterology, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou 256603, Shandong Province, China
Cheng-Xia Liu, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou 256603, Shandong Province, China
Co-first authors: Ming-Wei Fan and Jin-Lan Tian.
Co-corresponding authors: Cheng-Xia Liu and Yan Chen.
Author contributions: Fan MW and Tian JL made equal contributions as co-first authors; Tian JL conducted animal experimentation studies; Fan MW assessed the gastrointestinal motility in rats and authored the manuscript; Zhao ZJ administered drug injections to the rats; Liu XR conducted measurements of the animals’ blood glucose levels and body weights; Zhang SH directed the animal experiments; Chen Y and Liu CX provided the study design and methodological suggestions, and discussed the data. All authors approved the final version to publish.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: The Animal Protection and Use Committee has formally approved all experimental protocols, No. 20250107-05.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: The datasets utilized in this study can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan Chen, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, No. 661 Yellow River Second Road, Bincheng District, Binzhou 256603, Shandong Province, China. chenyanfeihong0906@163.com
Received: September 15, 2025
Revised: October 11, 2025
Accepted: December 16, 2025
Published online: February 15, 2026
Processing time: 144 Days and 22 Hours
Revised: October 11, 2025
Accepted: December 16, 2025
Published online: February 15, 2026
Processing time: 144 Days and 22 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: For the first time we show that high-frequency electroacupuncture at Zusanli acupoint outperforms low-frequency stimulation in diabetic gastroparesis by simultaneously blocking the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase-stimulator of interferon genes pathway, halting M2-macrophage pyroptosis, curtailing interleukin-1β/interleukin-18 release and thereby rescuing the interstitial cells of Cajal network, offering an immediately translatable, non-drug strategy to restore gastric motility.