Sheng Li Ke Xue Jin Zhan. 1999 Oct; 30(4): 326-9.

[A study on the effect and mechanism of acupuncture suppression of neuronal apoptosis following cerebral ischemia]

Shi J.

Department of Neurobiology, Tongji Medical University, Wuhan 430030.

On the basis of affirming that acupuncture suppresses neuronal apoptosis following cerebral ischemia, this study investigates the mechanism of acupuncture which modulates the intrinsic factors suppressing and promoting apoptosis. The main results showed that: (1) the symptom of neral defect induced by cerebral ischemia was improved and the area of infarction following cerebra ischemia was reduced after acupuncture treatment; (2) by employing PI and TUNEL staining, the apoptosis neurons were observed following cerebral ischemia, and acupuncture was able to protect against neuronal apoptosis following cerebral ischemia; (3) using a kinetic cadmium-reduction method for the determination of nitric oxide (NO) and an immunohistochemistry method for observation of NOS-immunoactivity in rat brain, it was found that the content of NO in the side of infarction was higher than that of control, and the increase of NO content was positively related to iNOS immunoactivity; acupuncture could inhibit iNOS activity thereby decreasing the NO level; (4) in situ hybridization study revealed that excitotoxicity of glutamate following cerebral ischemia was mediated by NMDAR1mRNA overexpression, that was down-regulated by acupuncture; (5) immunohistochemistry study revealed that the expression of nerve growth factor receptor(trk-A) was induced by acupuncture after cerebral ischemia, which may play a role in antagonizing apoptosis.