[Effect of scalp-acupuncture on plasma and cerebral TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents in acute cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury rats].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the underlying mechanism of scalp-acupuncture therapy in the treatment of acute cerebral ischemia (ACI) in the rat.


METHODS
A total of 140 SD female rats were randomly assigned to sham-operation (n=20), model (n=60), scalp-acupuncture (SA, n=60) groups, and the later two groups were further divided into 24 h, 48 h and 72 h subgroups separately, with 20 cases in each. Among them, 70 rats were used for cerebral tissue section, and the other 70 cases for homogenating cerebral tissue. ACI model was established by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO) for 1 h and reperfusion. EA (2/100 Hz, 2 mA) was applied to bilateral "Dingnie Houxiexian" (MS 7) and "Dingnie Qianxiexian" (MS 6) for 20 min, once daily for 1 d, 2 d and 3 d respectively. The rat's neurological severity score (NSS) was assessed before and after EA. Blood and brain tissue were sampled for detecting TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents respectively with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Haematoxylin-eosine (H&E) staining method was used for displaying the inflammatory cells in the ischemic brain tissue.


RESULTS
(1) After ACI, NSS at each time-point increased significantly, while compared with model group, NSS of SA group decreased apparently 72 h after ACI (P<0.01). Compared with the corresponding time-points of sham-operation group, the number of inflammatory cells, plasma and cerebral TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h in model group increased considerably (P<0.01, 0.05). In comparison with the corresponding time-points of model group, the number of inflammatory cells at 48 h and 72 h, plasma and cerebral TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents at 72 h in SA group declined significantly (P<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Scalp-acupuncture can relieve inflammatory cell infiltration, and reduce plasma and cerebral TNF-alpha and IL-1beta contents in ACI rats, which may contribute to its effect in promoting neurofunctional recovery.
Zhou
Li
L
Department of Acu-moxibustion, Wuhan Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital, Wuhan 430022, China. bluesea-zl2000@163.com
Zhang
Hong-Xing
HX
Liu
Ling-Guang
LG
Huang
Hao
H
Li
Xuan
X
Yang
Min
M
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000818:Animals; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy*; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D053583:Interleukin-1beta / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D010949:Plasma / Q000276:immunology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood
D053583:Interleukin-1beta; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha