| Objective Depression is a very serious psychosomatic disease nowadays. Acupuncture, one of the major parts of Traditional Chinese Medicine, can alleviate the symptoms of depression patients. Mechanisms of its effect, however, remain unclear. Therefore, our research focused on observing the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on changes of behavior in depression rats, furthermore, exploring some possible mechanisms by investigating the influence of EA on NO-cGMP signal passageway and BDNFmRNA expression in rat hippocampus. Methods Thirty male SD rats were evenly randomized into control, model and EA groups. Depression model was established by using chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) stimulation (forced ice-water swimming, electric shock, tail-clamping, etc) combined with lonely raising for 21 days. EA (2 Hz, 0.6 mA, 20 min) was applied to "Baihui"(GV 20) and "Yintang"(EX-HN 3), once daily, continuously for 21 days. The rat's body weight, open-field test, absolute and relative volume of sucrose-intake were recorded one day before experiments, and on the 7th, 14th and 21st day during experiments respectively. After the behavior observation, the content of cGMP,the expression of nNOS and BDNFmRNA in hippocampus were determined by radioimmunoassay, immuno-histochemistry and nucleic acid in situ hybridization separately. Results 1. Compared with control group, the rats' body weight, crossing and rearing motion times and sucrose-intake volume decreased significantly in model group (P<0.05～0.001). From the 7th to 21st day, the body weight of both model and EA groups was significantly lower than that of control group (P<0.01～0.001), but no significant difference was found between model and EA groups. Compared with control group, the crossing and rearing movement times from the 7th to 21st day, the absolute volume of sucrose-intake on the 14th and 21st day, and the relative volume of sucrose-intake on the 21st day of model group decreased significantly (P<0.05~0.001). In comparison with model group, the rats' crossing and rearing movement times from 7th to 21st day, absolute and relative volume of Objective Depression is a very serious psychosomatic disease nowadays. Acupuncture, one of the major parts of Traditional Chinese Medicine, can alleviate the symptoms of depression patients. Mechanisms of its effect, however, remain unclear. Therefore, our research focused on observing the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on changes of behavior in depression rats, furthermore, exploring some possible mechanisms by investigating the influence of EA on NO-cGMP signal passageway and BDNFmRNA expression in rat hippocampus. Methods Thirty male SD rats were evenly randomized into control, model and EA groups. Depression model was established by using chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) stimulation (forced ice-water swimming, electric shock, tail-clamping, etc) combined with lonely raising for 21 days. EA (2 Hz, 0.6 mA, 20 min) was applied to "Baihui"(GV 20) and "Yintang"(EX-HN 3), once daily, continuously for 21 days. The rat's body weight, open-field test, absolute and relative volume of sucrose-intake were recorded one day before experiments, and on the 7th, 14th and 21st day during experiments respectively. After the behavior observation, the content of cGMP,the expression of nNOS and BDNFmRNA in hippocampus were determined by radioimmunoassay, immuno-histochemistry and nucleic acid in situ hybridization separately. Results 1. Compared with control group, the rats' body weight, crossing and rearing motion times and sucrose-intake volume decreased significantly in model group (P<0.05～0.001). From the 7th to 21st day, the body weight of both model and EA groups was significantly lower than that of control group (P<0.01～0.001), but no significant difference was found between model and EA groups. Compared with control group, the crossing and rearing movement times from the 7th to 21st day, the absolute volume of sucrose-intake on the 14th and 21st day, and the relative volume of sucrose-intake on the 21st day of... |
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