title: [Effect of electroacupuncture intervention on expression of vascular PKC in the ischemic cerebral tissue in rats with cerebral infarction].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To observe the effect of electroacupunctur (EA) of Shuigou(GV 26)on the expression of vascular protein kinase C (PKC) in the focal ischemia cerebral tissue in rats so as to study its dynamic regulation mechanism.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 78 Wistar rats were randomly divided into model group (n = 24), EA group (n = 24), sham operation (sham) group (n = 24) and control group (n = 6). The first 3 groups were further divided into 0. 5 h, 1 h, 3 h and 6 h subgroups, with 6 cases in each. Cerebral ischemia (CI) model was established by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. EA (15 Hz, 1.0 mA) was applied to "Shuigou" (GV 26) for 20 min. The anterior, middle and posterior cerebral arteries on the infarct side of the brain were collected for assaying the expression of PKC protein by using Western blot, and the formalin-fixed artery samples were embedded with paraffin, followed by sectioning and staining with immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with the control group, the expression levels of cerebral vascular smooth PKC protein shown by both immunohistochemistry and Western blot were upregulated significantly at the time-points of 0.5 h, 1 h, 3 h and 6 h after CI in the model group (P<0.05, P<0.01). In comparison with the model group, the expression levels of PKC protein in the cerebral vascular smooth muscle shown by the aforementioned two methods were down-regulated considerably in the EA group (P<0.01, P<0.05). No statistic differences were found between the control and sham groups in the expression of vascular PKC protein at different time-points (P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EA Intervention can significantly inhibit PKC expression in the cerebral vascular smooth muscle in CI rats, which may be responsible for its efficacy in improving ischemic stroke.
authors.affiliation: Gansu Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou 730000, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Long
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wei-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yuan-Hao
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy*; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D008297:Male; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011493:Protein Kinase C / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D011493:Protein Kinase C