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Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Diabetes. May 15, 2026; 17(5): 117132
Published online May 15, 2026. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v17.i5.117132
Gastric electrical stimulation ameliorates antral myenteric neurons in streptozotocin-induced diabetic beagle canines
Pan Tang, Xin Wu, Ji-Ri Xi, Ming-Yu Fu, Xiao-Wei Xue, Ying Jiang, Yang Zhao, He-Er Yang, Gui-Jun Fei, Xiao-Qing Li, Chun-Hua Hu, Xiu-Cai Fang
Pan Tang, Ji-Ri Xi, Ming-Yu Fu, He-Er Yang, Gui-Jun Fei, Xiao-Qing Li, Xiu-Cai Fang, Department of Gastroenterology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Xin Wu, Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Xiao-Wei Xue, Ying Jiang, Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Yang Zhao, Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100730, China
Chun-Hua Hu, School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Author contributions: Tang P analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Tang P, Fu MY, Xue XW, Jiang Y, Fei GJ, Li XQ, and Fang XC performed the experiments; Wu X, Xi JR, Zhao Y, Yang HE, and Hu CH conducted the surgery and research; Fang XC designed the study and critically revised the manuscript; all authors had final approval of the article.
Supported by National Key Technologies Research and Development Program of China, No. 2019YFC0118505.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Animal Welfare and Ethical Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital (No. XHDW-2020-047 and No. XHDW-2020-047-2).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
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 generated or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Xiu-Cai Fang, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. fangxiucai2@aliyun.com
Received: December 1, 2025
Revised: January 20, 2026
Accepted: February 24, 2026
Published online: May 15, 2026
Processing time: 163 Days and 0.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Experiments in small animal models have confirmed that damage to the enteric nervous system severely impairs physiological movement in the gastrointestinal system in diabetic gastroparesis. We found that the morphologic changes in gastric excitatory and inhibitory neurons are also present in streptozotocin-induced diabetic beagle canines, despite the absence of obvious manifestations of gastroparesis. High-frequency gastric electrical stimulation ameliorates the enteric nervous system in diabetic canines by upregulating choline acetyltransferase and neuronal nitric oxide synthase-immunoreactive positive neurons, these neuromodulatory effects on enteric neuronal plasticity could restore slow wave rhythms, enhance gastric emptying, and improve gastric accommodation.

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