Stalp-acuouncture on the content of BrdU/nestin in acute cerebralischemia/reperfusion injury rats

Objective To explore the possible mechanisms of Scalp-acupuncture(SA) in treating cerebral ischemia by observing the expression of BrdU/nestin in rats with focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury.Methods 90 Rat models with middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO) were randomized into sham operated group(without artery occlusion),model group and SA group(the SA group was randomly subdivided into 7d,14d,18d groups according to the duration for reperfusion.The model group and the SA group were undergoing needles insertion along anterior oblique line of vertex-temporal and posterior oblique line of vertex-temporal,soon after when a Han's Electro-Acupuncture Apparatus was connected for treatment for once a day) and applied neurological severity score(NSS),immunofluorescence assays were applied for detecting BrdU and BrdU/nestin contents of dentategyrus in each time point. Results(1) On NSS at each phase point:SA group demonstrated obvious decline in NSS at all time phases when compared with that of model group(P0.01).On observation of BrdU at each phase,significantly differences were seen in SA group contrasting with that of model group and sham group(P0.01).On observation of BrdU model group and SA group at each phase point,there were significant differences(P0.05).There were significant differences in BrdU/nestin between scalp acupuncture group and model group(P0.05),with the most significant difference was observed at the 7th day.Conclusions Scalp-acupuncture is protective for the brain against ischemia by obvious improvement on the deficit of neural function and the regeneration of the neural stem cells(NSCs).In addition,SA increases nestin content for facilitating the repairment of the in-process ischemic injury NSCs.