Clinical Acupoint Selection Regularity And Hippocampus Cholinergic Anti-inflammatory Pathway Of Acupuncture On Vascular Dementia

Objective We investigated thelaws of choose acupointandrole of α7n ACh R mediated anti-inflammatory pathway in the effects of acupuncture on cognitive function in VD rats and explored its molecular mechanism.MethodsVascular dementia was modeled in adult wistar rats by two-vessel occlusion-operated(2VO).wistar rats were randomly distributed into sham-operated group,2VO group,acupuncture group(2VO+Acu)and non-acupuncture point(2VO+non-Acu)group.In acupuncture group,rats were treated with acupuncture by needling at “Baihui”(GV2020)and bilateral “Zusanli”(ST36).For 2VO+non-Acu group,rats were treated with the same precedure as the acupuncture group except for bilateral stationary sham acupoints(2 cm upper to the anterior superior spine for rats).Sham-operated group and 2VO groups were caught using the same time and same level of catching-grasping stimulation as the acupuncture group.The stimulation was administered once daily for 2 weeks and 1 day rest in the middle of treatment.Then all rats were killed in the 14 day.The effects of acupuncture on working memory performance in VD rats were assessed by morris water maze.Nissl staining and immunofluorescent staining were performed to evaluate the effects of acupuncture on cerebral ischemic injury and microglial in hippocampus.The protein and gene levels of IL-6、TNF-α and α7n ACh R as well as the JAK2/STAT3 signal pathway in hippocampus were evaluated by Western blot and QPCR.Results 1)Themostfrequentlychosenacupointarebaihui、sishencong、renzhong andzusanli.2)Acupuncture ameliorated cognitive deficits in VD rats.3)Acupuncture ameliorated the neuron injury 、 inflammation and the activation of microglial in hippocampus.4)Acupuncrure increased the expression of α7n ACh R and its downstream signal pathway JAK2/STAT3.5)Neuroprotection induced by acupuncture treatmentisrevisedby α7n ACh R antagonist a-BGT on ConclusionAcupuncture could improve the cognitive deficits and ameliorate the neuron injury and inflammation in hippocampus.Acupuncture also promoted the expression of α7n ACh R and its downstream signal pathway JAK2/STAT3.