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. 2017 May;29(5).
doi: 10.1111/nmo.12999. Epub 2016 Dec 12.

Transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation modulates cardiac vagal tone and tumor necrosis factor-alpha

C Brock  1 , B Brock  2 , Q Aziz  3 , H J Møller  2 , M Pfeiffer Jensen  4 , A M Drewes  1 , A D Farmer  1   3   5
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Transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation modulates cardiac vagal tone and tumor necrosis factor-alpha

C Brock et al. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2017 May.

Abstract

The vagus nerve is a central component of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathways. We sought to evaluate the effect of bilateral transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation (t-VNS) on validated parameters of autonomic tone and cytokines in 20 healthy subjects. 24 hours after t-VNS, there was an increase in cardiac vagal tone and a reduction in tumor necrosis factor-α in comparison to baseline. No change was seen in blood pressure, cardiac sympathetic index or other cytokines. These preliminary data suggest that t-VNS exerts an autonomic and a subtle antitumor necrosis factor-α effect, which warrants further evaluation in larger controlled studies.

Keywords: autonomic nervous system; cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway; vagal nerve stimulation.

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