<p style="text-align: center;">SHI Yin, ZHOU Jing, LI Tao,CHEN Liu,WU Huangan</p><p style="text-align: center;">（1 Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine，Shanghai, 201203; 2 Shanghai Institute of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Meridian, Shanghai, 200030）</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Abstract</strong>:&nbsp; Crohn&#39;s&nbsp; disease&nbsp; (Crohn&nbsp; &#39;s&nbsp; Disease,&nbsp; CD)&nbsp; is&nbsp; a&nbsp; chronic&nbsp; nonspecific&nbsp; granulomatous inflammatory bowel disease. The causes of CD are unknown. The pathogenesis of CD is still not completely clear, but the occurrence and development of damage and intestinal epithelial barrier in CD are closely related. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α a key proinflammatory cytokine has a&nbsp; function&nbsp; of&nbsp; mediating&nbsp; intestinal&nbsp; inflammation&nbsp; and&nbsp; the&nbsp; immune&nbsp; response.&nbsp; TRADD-FADD apoptosis&nbsp; pathway&nbsp; mediated&nbsp; by&nbsp; TNF-α&nbsp; is&nbsp; one&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; leading&nbsp; cause&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; intestinal&nbsp; epithelial barrier injury in CD. TNF-α induced zinc finger protein A20 (zinc finger protein A20, A20) can be applied to a negative feedback loop to regulate cell signaling induced by TNF-α, which is essential for&nbsp; protecting&nbsp; intestinal&nbsp; epithelial&nbsp; barrier&nbsp; function.&nbsp; Our&nbsp; previous&nbsp; animal&nbsp; experiments demonstrated that moxibustion can inhibit abnormal expression of TNF-α and TNFR1 in colonic mucosa of rats in CD, thereby reducing the apoptosis of colonic epithelial cells to repair colonic epithelial&nbsp; barrier&nbsp; injury.&nbsp; This&nbsp; study&nbsp; aims&nbsp; to&nbsp; observe&nbsp; effect&nbsp; of&nbsp; A20&nbsp; in&nbsp; CD&nbsp; pathogenesis.&nbsp; A20 knockout rats were selected as models. Moxibustion and mesalazine were compared to study effect of down-regulated expression of A20 or no expression of A20 on intestinal epithelial barrier in CD. Moreover, effect of moxibustion on intestinal epithelial barrier was observed as well. This study&nbsp; was&nbsp; expected&nbsp; to&nbsp; explain&nbsp; possibly&nbsp; mechanism&nbsp; that&nbsp; effect&nbsp; of&nbsp; moxibustion&nbsp; in&nbsp; regulatinge intestinal epithelial barrier injury may through increasing expression of A20 and regulate TNF-α induced TRADD-FADD apoptosis pathway.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Keywords</strong>:&nbsp; Acupuncture&nbsp; and&nbsp; moxibustion,&nbsp; moxibustion,&nbsp; Crohn&#39;s&nbsp; disease,&nbsp; A20,&nbsp; tumor&nbsp; necrosis factor-alpha, TRADD-FADD cell apoptosis pathway, gene knockout rats</p><p><br/></p>