Effects Of Electroacupuncture At Baihui And Neiguan On GRP78 And CHOP Gene Expression In Endoplasmic Reticulum Of Rats With Cerebral Ischemia-reperfusion

Objective:To observe the effect of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model rats treated by electro-acupuncture on Neiguan (PC6) and Baihui (GV20) in GRP78 and CHOP gene expression, in order to discuss the underlying mechanism of electro-acupuncture PC6 and GV20 in cerebral protection.Methods:100 Sprague Dawley rats,10-12 weeks, healthy male, weighting 230g-280g, were randomly divided into 5 groups (n=20 each). Normal control (A), pseudo-operation(B), operation(C), edaravone(D), and electro-acupuncture(E). The ischemia model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) was established by the intraluminal thread approach, reperfusion after two hours. The direct observation method was used to score of neurological deficit in rats, TTC staining was adopted to measure the volume of cerebral infarction in rats, the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method was adopted to measure the expression of CHOP and GRP78 mRNA.Results:1. Compared with normal control group, a score of neurological impairment, a volume of cerebral infarction percentage and the expression of CHOP and GRP78 mRNA in pseudo-operation group rats were not significantly different (P>0.05).2. Compared with the normal control and pseudo-operation group, the score of neurological impairment, the volume of cerebral infarction percentage and the expression of CHOP and GRP78 mRNA increased in operation group, edaravone group and electro-acupuncture group, with significant or very significant difference (P<0.05 or P<0.01).3. Compared with the operation group, the score of neurological impairment significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01) in edaravone group and electro-acupuncture group, the expression of CHOP mRNA decreased significantly (P<0.05 or P<0.01), the expression of GRP78 mRNA increased significantly (P<0.01), but the volume of cerebral infarction percentage in the edaravone group decreased significantly (P<0.01), there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the electro-acupuncture group.4. Compared with edaravone group, the score of neurological impairment and the volume of cerebral infarction percentage in the electro-acupuncture group increased significantly (P<0.05 or P<0.01), no significant difference in other indexes (P>0.05).Conclusion:1. Acupuncture can, to some extent, effectively help recovery of neural function and inhibit expansion of the cerebral infarction volume so as to protect cerebral tissue.2. The cerebral protection from acupuncture may be related to up-regular the expression of GRP78, and at the same time down-regular the expression of CHOP.3. One of the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture treating cerebral ischemia injury might be related to regular the pathway of endoplasmic reticulum stress.