[Effects of electroacupuncture stimulation of scalp-point on cardiac sympathetic discharges, myocardial beta1-adrenoceptor protein expression and plasma norepinephrine concentration in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury rats].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) of scalp-point in the management of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MI/RI) by examining its effects on left cardiac sympathetic nerve activity, myocardial beta1-adrenaline receptor (AR) protein expression and plasma norepinephrine (NE) concentration in MI/RI rats.


METHODS
Eighteen Wistar rats were randomly divided into sham, model and EA groups (n = 6). MI/RI model was induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery for 30 min, followed by release of the ligation for 15 min. EA was applied to bilateral Epangxian I (MS 2) for 15 min. The left cardiac sympathetic nerve activity was recorded with BL-420 E+ biological signal acquisition system. Myocardial beta1-AR protein expression was examined by western blot and plasma NE level detected by enzyme-labeled immunosorbent assay.


RESULTS
Compared with the sham group, the left cardiac sympathetic discharges and plasma NE levels and myocardial beta1-AR protein expression were markedly increased in the model group (P < 0.01), whereas in comparison with the model group, the sympathetic discharges, plasma NE level and myocardial beta1-AR protein expression in the EA group were down-regulated significantly (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Scalp-point EA intervention can suppress MI/RI induced increase of sympathetic nerve activity and plasma NE level, and beta1-AR protein expression, which may contribute to its effect in relieving myocardial ischemia.
Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan 430065, China. meiping_li@tom.com
Mei-Ping
MP
Li
Guo-Jie
GJ
Sun
Xing-Hong
XH
You
D015669:Acupuncture Points; D000818:Animals; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D018342:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-1 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012535:Scalp; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*
C547789:Adrb1 protein, rat; D018342:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-1; D009638:Norepinephrine