Electroacupuncture preconditioning reduces cerebral ischemic injury via BDNF and SDF-1α in mice

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Hwa Kyoung Shin¹  Byung Tae Choi¹  Sun Sik Bae²  Ha Neui Kim¹  Young Jung Jang¹  Kyung Ha Choi¹  Ji Hyun Kim¹ 

[1] Division of Meridian and Structural Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Gyeongnam, 626-870, Republic of Korea;Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Gyeongnam, 626-870, Republic of Korea

关键词: Preconditioning;    SDF-1α;    BDNF;    Electroacupuncture;    Focal cerebral ischemia;   

Others  :  1231153
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-13-22

 received in 2012-10-31, accepted in 2013-01-25,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

This study was designed to determine if electroacupuncture (EA) preconditioning improves tissue outcome and functional outcome following experimentally induced cerebral ischemia in mice. In addition, we investigated whether the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and stromal cell derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) and infarct volume were related with improvement in neurological and motor function by interventions in this study.

Methods

After treatment with EA at the acupoints ‘Baihui (GV20)’ and ‘Dazhui (GV14)’ for 20 min, BDNF was assessed in the cortical tissues based on Western blot and the SDF-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in the plasma determined by ELISA. To assess the protective effects of EA against ischemic injury, the mice received once a day 20 min EA preconditioning for three days prior to the ischemic event. Focal cerebral ischemia was then induced by photothrombotic cortical ischemia. Infarct volumes, neurobehavioral deficit and motor deficit were evaluated 24 h after focal cerebral ischemia.

Results

The expression of BDNF protein increased significantly from 6 h, reaching a plateau at 12 h after the end of EA treatment in the cerebral cortex. Furthermore, SDF-1α, not VEGF, increased singnificantly from 12 h to 48 h after EA stimulation in the plasma. Moreover, EA preconditioning reduced the infarct volume by 43.5% when compared to control mice at 24 h after photothrombotic cortical ischemia. Consistent with a smaller infarct size, EA preconditioning showed prominent improvement of neurological function and motor function such as vestibule-motor function, sensori-motor function and asymmetric forelimb use. The expression of BDNF colocalized within neurons and SDF-1α colocalized within the cerebral vascular endothelium was observed throughout the ischemic cortex by EA.

Conclusions

Pretreatment with EA increased the production of BDNF and SDF-1α, which elicited protective effects against focal cerebral ischemia. These results suggest a novel mechanism of EA pretreatment-induced tolerance against cerebral ischemic injury.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Kim et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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