Acupunct Electrother Res. 2002 ; 27(3-4): 183-9.

Differential expression of age-related genes in the cerebrum of senescence-accelerated mouse (SAMP10) and analysis of acupuncture interference using DD-PCR technique.

Yu J, Lu M, Yu T, Han J.

Gerontological Department, National Acupuncture and Moxibustion Clinical Research Center, No. 1 Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of TCM, P.R. China.

In this paper, we applied DD-PCR (differential display polymerase chain reaction) technique to analyze the differential expression of age-related genes in the cerebrum of senescence-accelerated mouse (SAMP10) and effect of acupuncture on them. The results showed that the expression levels of some genes either increased or decreased with increasing aging, it implies that they were probably related to accelerated senescence of SAMP10. Compared with the control group at the matched age, the expression levels of the genes of cerebrum of acupunctured mice were all affected after acupuncturing acupoints, the genes that over express with aging were down-regulated (acupuncture decreases the expression level of related genes) but that less express were up-regulated (acupuncture increases the expression level of related genes). These changes all showed a tendency towards expression level of the young mice. We observed for the first times at the transcriptional levels that the effect of acupuncture is the adjustment that probably interferes with the senescence process from whole body and proved also the acupoints have specificity of treating compared with non-acupoints.