title: Electroacupuncture preconditioning and postconditioning inhibit apoptosis and neuroinflammation induced by spinal cord ischemia reperfusion injury through enhancing autophagy in rats.
abstract: Electroacupuncture (EA) has beneficial effects on spinal cord ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the role of autophagy in the protection of EA preconditioning and postconditioning against spinal cord I/R injury. For this, spinal cord I/R injury was induced by 14min occlusion of the aortic arch, and rats were treated with EA for 20min before or after the surgery. The expression of autophagy components, light chain 3 and Beclin 1, was assessed by Western blot. The hind-limb motor function was assessed using the Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) criteria, and motor neurons in the ventral gray matter were counted by histological examination. The apoptosis of neurocyte was assessed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. The expression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) was also measured using Western blot or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Either EA preconditioning or postconditioning enhanced autophagy, and minimized the neuromotor dysfunction and histopathological deficits after spinal cord I/R injury. In addition, EA suppressed I/R-induced apoptosis and increased in the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and MMP-9. In contrast, the autophagic inhibitor (3-methyladenine, 3-MA) inhibited the neuroprotective effects of EA. Moreover, 3-MA increased the apoptosis and the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and MMP-9. In summary, these findings suggested that EA preconditioning and postconditioning could alleviate spinal cord I/R injury, which was partly mediated by autophagy upregulation-induced inhibition of apoptosis and neuroinflammation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China. Electronic address: drunk0630@126.com.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Meiman
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoqian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenfei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, North Nanjing Street, No. 155, Shenyang, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D000071186:Beclin-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057775:Ischemic Postconditioning / Q000379:methods*; D019194:Ischemic Preconditioning / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D020760:Spinal Cord Ischemia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D000071186:Beclin-1; D016207:Cytokines
keywords: Apoptosis; Autophagy; Electroacupuncture; Neuroinflammation; Spinal cord ischemia reperfusion injury