| Speciality:Acupuncture and Moxibustion and Tuina of Chinese medicineAuthor:LAM ESTHER CHEUNG S00KANTutor:Bangguo Chen ProfessorObjective:Stroke is a critical illness results from cerebral blood circulation disorder. Stroke is also known as cerebrovascular accident, which is classified into ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. About85%of strokes are ischemic stroke. Stroke has high incidence and poor prognosis, which is the leading cause of disability and one of the top three causes of mortality in the elderly. Stroke is now regarded as a serious threat to human health. In Chinese medicine, the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke includes six factors, they are weak, fire, wind, phlegm, qi and blood. These six factors might interact with each other under certain conditions, which lead to the development of stroke. Acupuncture is the representative non-drug treatments in traditional Chinese medicine, which is easy to be operated and safe to patients. The efficiency of acupuncture in the treatment of ischemic cerebrovascular disease has been extensively confirmed in clinical practice. Since angiogenesis plays important roles of in the recovery of cerebral ischemia, we planed to investigate whether the (2)There are few CD34-positive cells present in the brain tissue of sham group. The brain tissue from model group showed visible CD34expression. There was significantly increased amount of CD34-positive cells in ischemic areas in the EA group.(3) There was very low level of COX-2mRNA in the sham group while the expression of COX-2mRNA obviously increased in the model group. The expression of COX-2mRNA was down-regulated in the EA group.(4) In sham group, there was no obvious COX-2protein expression in brain tissue. There was visible COX-2protein expressed in cerebral tissue of model group, while the EA treatment significantly decreased COX-2protein expression in ischemic areas as compared with model group. The expression of Ang-1was also very low in sham operation group while the expression of Ang-1in model group was visible. The expression of Ang-1was further increased after EA treatment.Conclusion:EA may down-regulate COX-2mRNA level and decrease VEGF protein level in the ischemic area. The reduced expression of COX-2, cooperated with the upregulation of Ang-1, might lead to enhanced angiogenessi and increased microvessel density in the ischemic area. These effects of EA might reduce neurobehavioral disorders in rats with cerebral ischemia and reperfusion, providing effective cerebral protective effect. |
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