The Study Of "Yiqitiaoxue,Fubenpeiyuan" Acup Method Improving Cognitive Function And Oxide Injury In Rat Of Multi-infarct Dementia(MID)

Purpose To explore the therapeutic effects of " Yiqitiaoxue.fubenpeiyuan" acup method on the rat of multi-infarct dementia(MID) by observation of the behavioral changes, antioxidation system and nitric oxide (NO)/nitric oxide synthase(NOS). Methods The multi-infarct dementia model was made by injecting emboli into the internal carotid artery. Of them the rats proved dementia were allocated to 3 groups: model, acup and sham-acup, meanwhile normal and sham-operated rats were used as control. Shuttle box test and Morris water maze tests were employed to assess associative learning and spatial memory ability per group respectively and to analyse the curative effect of acup. The parameters of oxidative stress were assessed by measuring the malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase(CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) levels in blood serum and brain tissue after acupuncture treatment; NO, NOS and endothelin(ET) were also tested. Meanwhile we evaluated the expression of CuZnSOD and nNOS by means of in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical assays. Results Compared to normal group, Model animals showed significant cognitive impairments in shuttle box and Morris water maze tests; MDA levels of serum and cortex increased significantly,while SOD in the cortex and hippocampus, and GSH-Px in cortex, hippocampus and striatum decreased much more; NO and ET levels of serum (plasma) and hippocampus, and NOS levels of hippocampus and striatum increased significantly; The expression of CuZnSOD in MID rat brain tissue descended and nNOS ascended. Interestingly, the acupuncture can significantly reverse all those factors and were not significant difference relative to control group, meanwhile, no difference between sham-acup and model group.Conclusion The present results show that "Yiqitiaoxue,fubenpeiyuan" acup method exerted a protective effect on cognitive impairment induced by cerebral multi-infarction in rats. The neuroprotective effect of "Yiqitiaoxue, fubenpeiyuan" acup method may be due at least partly to the enhancement of free radical scavenging activity, the attenuation of NO neurotoxicity, and cerebral blood flow-adjusting effects in hippocampus, and points have specificity of treatment.