ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effect of electro-acupuncture on behavior alterations,the expression of amyloid precursor protein(APP),amyloid β-protein(Aβ) proteins and neuroapoptosis in the cerebral cortex in the APPswe/PS1dE9 double transgenic mice with Alzheimer's disease (AD) induced by isoflurane.Methods Sixmonth-old AD mice and wild-type mice at the same age were randomly divided into wile-type control group,AD group,isoflurane group,electro-acupuncture group (N =8).The mice were given pretreatment with electro-acupuncture at Baihui(GV20) acupoint and Yongquan(KI 1) acupoint once a day for 3 successive days,15 min each time.And then the mice in electro-acupuncture group and isoflurane group were exposed to a box full of 1.2％ isoflurane for 4 hours.Morris water maze was used to test the learning and memory abilities of the mice,Western blotting method was used to detect the expression of APP-C83,APP-C99 and Aβ,and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase(TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end labeling(TUNEL) was used to detect neuroapoptosis in the cerebral cortex.Results The escape latency of AD group was longer than that of wild-type mice group(P＜0.05),and the latency of isoflurane group was longer than that of AD group (P ＜ 0.05),while the latency of electro-acupuncture group was shorter than that of isoflurane group(P ＜ 0.05).The percentage of retention time in the target quadrant and the times for crossing the target quadrant in isoflurane group were lower than those of AD group (P ＜ 0.05),but were higher in electro-acupuncture group than those in isoflurane group (P ＜ 0.05).APPC83 expression level in isoflurane group was significantly lower than that in AD group (P ＜ 0.05),while APP-C83 expression level in electro-acupuncture group was higher than that in isoflurane group (P ＜ 0.05).APP-C99 expression level in isoflurane group was significantly higher than that in AD group (P ＜ 0.05),and APP-C99 expression level in electro-acupuncture group was lower than that in isoflurane group (P ＜ 0.05).The cortical apoptosis index in isoflurane group was significantly higher than that in AD group (P ＜ 0.05),and the cortical apoptosis index in electro-acupuncture group was lower than that in isoflurane group (P ＜ 0.05).The expression level of Aβ in AD group,isoflurane group and electro-acupuncture group was significantly higher than wild-type control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Electro-acupuncture can relieve the AD-like neurotoxicity induced by isoflurane and inhibit the decline of learning and memory abilities of AD mice,and the mechanism is probably related with suppressing the overexpression of APP-C99 and reducing the production and accumulation of Aβ,thereby alleviating the neuroapoptosis.