A Preliminary Study Of Acupuncture For The Treatment Of Tibialis Anterior Muscle And Gastrocnemius Muscle Atrophy Molecular Mechanisms

Autophagy protein degradation can maintain the protein in the body metabolicbalance,It is an effective response of cells to environmental changes. Onthemetabolisms, it is important for physiological significance. Autophagy is animportant mechanism that it can defense any severe environment, and it participate inmany kinds of physical diseases.The experiment mainly through set up the model ofskeletal muscle atrophy of mice, and treat by acupuncture, to research the molecularmechanism of acupuncture treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy.In this experiment，we purchase the mice of Kunming, After feeding a week, theyare randomly divided into four groups: normal control group (C), acupuncture group(AP),the suspensiongroup (SP), and suspension+acupuncture group (SP+AP),andestablish the mice model of skeletal muscle atrophy through the mice tail suspensionmethod. In the next14days, treat the mice of acupuncture group (AP) and suspension+acupuncture group (SP+AP) by acupuncture every day.The acupuncture points arebilateral Huantiao(GB30), Zusanli(ST36) and Chengshan(BL57), and we usereinforcing-reducingmethod(characteristic：soft, deep and strong, uniformcoordination, stimulation is small). Treat by acupuncture was performed for20minevery day for2weeks;the needle is turned every5minutes.After2weekperiodofacupuncture treatment,allmice wereexecute, and measure their muscle tension ofgastrocnemius, dissecttibialis anterior muscle and gastrocnemius. Finally, we detectthe autophagy signalingpathway related protein and mitochondria fusionandfissionrelated protein by western blot.The experimental results showed thatthe muscle mass was significantly lost inthe suspension mice (SP) which compared with normal control mice (C),acupuncturetreatment of suspension mice (SP+AP) can significantly slow the decline in musclemass, but do not recovered to the normal levels; Acupuncture treatment has nofunction on muscle mass in normalmice. We also detect the strength of gastrocnemius,and found that the muscle tension declined in the suspension mice(SP),which compared with normal control mice (C), but acupuncture treatment of suspensionmice (SP+AP) has no significant differences.Simultaneously, we detect the autophagysignalingpathway related protein and mitochondria fusion andfissionrelated protein bywestern blot. The research found thatthe expression of LC3Ⅱ、AMPK、Akt、p-FoxO3a were reduced in the susf suspension mice (SP+AP). It has no significantdifferences in the acupuncture treatmepension mice(SP), but it was opposite in theacupuncture treatment ont mice.Through the above research results show that treatment of acupuncture couldslow the skeletal muscle atrophy,alleviate the serious loss of muscle strength, but itstill not back to normal state.The molecular mechanism of skeletal muscle atrophywhich treat by acupuncture may relate to autophagy-lysosome pathway, IGF-1/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and mitochondria fusion andfission. In this experiment,we mainly through the perspective of autophagy and mitochondria fusion andfission,to research the mechanism of acupuncture for treatment of skeletal muscleatrophy,and to provide an important theoretical basis in clinical treatment of skeletalmuscle atrophy in the future.