Electroacupuncture reduces injury to the blood-brain barrier following cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion injury

Yongjun Peng; Hesheng Wang; Jianhua Sun; Li Chen; Meijuan Xu; Jihong Chu

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2012.36.007

Electroacupuncture reduces injury to the blood-brain barrier following cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion injury

Neural Regen Res. 2012 Dec 25;7(36):2901-6. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2012.36.007.

Authors

Yongjun Peng¹, Hesheng Wang¹, Jianhua Sun¹, Li Chen¹, Meijuan Xu¹, Jihong Chu¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Acupuncture and Rehabilitation, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China.

PMID: 25317142
PMCID: PMC4190948
DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2012.36.007

Abstract

This study used electroacupuncture at Renzhong (DU26) and Baihui (DU20) in a rat model of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Neurological deficit scores, western blotting, and reverse transcription-PCR results demonstrated that electroacupuncture markedly reduced neurological deficits, decreased corpus striatum aquaporin-4 protein and mRNA expression, and relieved damage to the blood-brain barrier in a rat model of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. These results suggest that electroacupuncture most likely protects the blood-brain barrier by regulating aquaporin-4 expression following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Keywords: Baihui (DU20); Renzhong (DU26); aquaporin-4; blood-brain barrier; brain edema; brain injury; cerebral ischemia/reperfusion; electroacupuncture; neural regeneration; rat; regeneration.