title: Acupuncture Improved Neurological Recovery after Traumatic Brain Injury by Activating BDNF/TrkB Pathway.
abstract: How to promote neural repair following traumatic brain injury (TBI) has long been an intractable problem. Although acupuncture has been demonstrated to facilitate the neurological recovery, the underlying mechanism is elusive. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) exerts substantial protective effects for neurological disorders. In this study, we found that the level of BDNF and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) was elevated spontaneously after TBI and reached up to the peak at 12 h. Nevertheless, this enhancement is quickly declined to the normal at 48 h. After combined stimulation at the acupoints of Baihui, Renzhong, Hegu, and Zusanli, we found that BDNF and TrkB were still significantly elevated at 168 h. We also observed that the downstream molecular p-Akt and p-Erk1/2 were significantly increased, suggesting that acupuncture could persistently activate the BDNF/TrkB pathway. To further verify that acupuncture improved recovery through activating BDNF/TrkB pathway, K252a (specific inhibitor of TrkB) was treated by injection stereotaxically into lateral ventricle. We observed that K252a could significantly prevent the acupuncture-induced amelioration of motor, sensation, cognition, and synaptic plasticity. These data indicated that acupuncture promoted the recovery of neurological impairment after TBI by activating BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway, providing new molecular mechanism for understanding traditional therapy of acupuncture.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Xiping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Ming-Liang
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Sai
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8028-4183
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurology, Pingjin Hospital, Logistics University of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Tianjin 300162, China; Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma Repair of Tianjin, Tianjin 300162, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5592-4751
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tu