title: Acupuncture to point Baihui prevents ischemia-induced functional impairment of cortical GABAergic neurons.
abstract: Ischemia impairs brain function and networks, in which the vulnerability of GABAergic neurons causes neural excitotoxicity and nerve cell death. Acupuncture presumably improves the outcome of stroke patients; however, cellular mechanisms underlying this improvement remain to be elusive. We have investigated whether electrical stimuli to acupoint Baihui prevent ischemia- induced impairment of cortical GABAergic neurons. After acupuncture to a Baihui-point of mice for a week, we examined the responses of cortical GABAergic neurons to ischemia by whole-cell recording. Compared with the data from a group of ischemia only, the acupuncture prevents the impairments of spike encoding and synaptic transmission at GABAergic neurons from ischemia. This prevention is associated with the resistance of these cells to ischemia-induced changes in spike threshold potentials and refractory periods Therefore, acupuncture to Baihui-point improves ischemic stroke via preventing the impairment of cortical GABAergic neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Shuyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Gonglong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xianwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Mingxiu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Cuier
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Feifei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D015669:Acupuncture Points; D000818:Animals; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015671:Electroacupuncture / Q000379:methods*; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid