title: Electroacupuncture frequency-related transcriptional response in rat arcuate nucleus revealed region-distinctive changes in response to low- and high-frequency electroacupuncture.
abstract: Electroacupuncture (EA) has been clinically applied for treating different medical conditions, such as pain, strain, and immune diseases. Low- and high-frequency EAs have distinct therapeutic effects in clinical practice and experimental studies. However, the molecular mechanism of this difference remains obscure. The arcuate nucleus (Arc) is a critical region of the hypothalamus and is responsible for the effect of EA stimulation to remote acupoints. Gene expression profiling provides a powerful tool with which to explore the basis of physiopathological responses to external stimulus. In this study, using cDNA microarray, we investigated gene expressions in the rat Arc region induced by low-frequency (2-Hz) and high-frequency (100-Hz) EAs to two remote acupoints, zusanli (ST36) and sanyinjiao (SP6). We have found that more genes were differentially regulated by 2-Hz EA than 100-Hz EA (154 vs. 66 regulated genes/ESTs) in Arc, especially those related to neurogenesis, which was confirmed by qRT-PCR. These results demonstrate that the expression level of genes in the Arc region could be effectively regulated by low-frequency EA, compared with high-frequency EA, helping to uncover the mechanisms of the therapeutic effects of the low-frequency EA. Our results also indicate different-frequency EAs are spatially specific.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Research Center for Biochip at Shanghai, Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Li-Bo
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Xiao-Hui
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Xing-Jie
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Ping
authors.forename: Ji-Sheng
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Guo-Ping
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Qing-Hua
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Cai-Lian
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D015667:Acupuncture Analgesia / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001111:Arcuate Nucleus of Hypothalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D015671:Electroacupuncture / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000502:physiology*