Effects Of P38MAPK Signal Pathway Of Electroacupuncture Shenting And Baihui On The Cognitive Impairment Rats After Ischemic Stroke

Objiect:This study is designed to research on the action mechanism of the inflammatoryreaction mediated by p38MAPK signal pathway in treating cognitive impairment inrats after ischemic stroke by electroacupuncture at Shenting and Baihui. Thecognitive impairment model was established by a focal cerebralischemia-reperfusion(I/R) injury rat with method of middle cerebral arteryocclusion(MCAO).Methods:60male SD rats were randomly divided into electroacupuncture group(EA),22rats, ischemia control group(IC),22rats, and sham operation control group(SC),16rats. The rats in the EA group in2h after molding were administeredelectroacupuncture at Shenting and Baihui for30min daily for10days. The rats inboth the IC and SC group were given equal to grab with untreated. The neurophysicalimpairment scale was evaluated by Longa. TTC staining was used to observe theeffect of the cerebral infarct volume. The learning and memory ability was tested byMorris water maze. The expression change of p38MAPK, TNF alpha(TNF-α) and betaIL-1(IL-1β) of hippocampus in rats were observed by immunohistochemical andRT-PCR.Data was processed with the statistical software SPSS19.0.Results:1The Longa neurophysical impairment scale shows that there was no neurophysicalimpairment in SC group. pre-treatment, both of IC group and EA group with differentneural damage level, and there was no significantly differenc(P<0.05). post-treatment,neural impairment syndrome was markedly improved in EA group, compaired withpretreatment(P<0.05), and also IC(P<0.05). 2Morris water maze shows that we can find that the time to find the platform bothEA and IC group were markedly increase compared to SC group(P<0.05), the EAgroup Obviously decrease compared to IC group(P<0.05). On the sixth day EA groupcrossed the location of the platform were significantly improved compared to ICgroup(P<0.05).3TTC staining shows that cerebral infarct volumes in rats of EA group wasobviously less than that of IC group, the difference is statistically significant(P<0.05).4Immunohistochemical shows that the positive cells expression of p38MAPK,TNF-α and IL-1β in hippocampus of SC group was not obvious, but in IC group it wasobviously increased, Compared with SC group, the difference is statisticallysignificant(P<0.05). In EA group it was obviously decrease, Compared with IC group,the difference is statistically significant(P<0.05).5RT-PCR shows that the expression of p38MAPK, TNF-α and IL-1βmRNA inhippocampus of IC group was obviously increased compared with that of the SCgroup, the difference is statistically significant(P<0.05). The expression in EA groupwas obviously decrease compared with that of IC group, the difference is statisticallysignificant(P<0.05).Conclusion:1Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury can activate the p38MAPK signaltransduction pathway, which up-regulation the proinflammatory factor TNF-α andIL-1β to induce hippocampus nerve damage, cause the disorder of learning andmemory in rats.2Electroacupuncture at Shenting and Baihui can inhibit p38MAPK signalingpathway, cause the TNF alpha, beta IL-1expression in hippocampus decreased.3Cognitive dysfunction in in rats after ischemic stroke colud be improved byElectroacupuncture at Shenting and Baihui, which mechanism may be related toinhibit p38MAPK signaling pathways and down-regulation the proinflammatoryfactor.