title: Effect of taurine in combination with electroacupuncture on neuronal damage following transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats.
abstract: The present study was to investigate whether taurine is beneficial to the neuroprotective effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on rat cerebral ischemia induced by transient Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion (MCAO). Histological change and DNA damage degree were detected by H&E staining and TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling) method. Taurine and EA combination group could significantly decrease the percentages of infarct area and cell loss induced by ischemic injury in the striatum (p<0.05, vs singly treated with taurine or EA), and also the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells was smaller than both singly treated groups (p<0.05). Moreover, immunoreactivities detection of Bcl-2 (which promotes cell survival), Bax (which promotes cell death) and P53 (product of tumor suppressor gene p53) showed that the combination group apparently attenuated P53 immunoreactivities expression whereas augmented the immunoreactivities expression ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax in cortex. These results suggested that combining use of taurine and EA could exert better neuroprotective effects, which might be related to the regulation of apoptosis pathway.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture Research, National Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, PR China.
authors.forename: Jingchun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jieshi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013654:Taurine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein
chemical_list: C494828:Bax protein, rat; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D013654:Taurine