ABSTRACT
@#Objective To investigate the effect of acupuncture-rehabilitation therapy on the neurological function and the expression of cleaved-caspase-8, cleaved-caspase-3 and cellular inhibitor of apoptosis 1 (cIAP1) in ischemic penumbra of rats with cerebral ischemia. Methods A total of 90 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham group, model group, acupuncture group, rehabilitation group and acupuncture-rehabilitation group. Each group was divided into three days, seven days and 14 days subgroups (n=6). The cerebral ischemia model was established with the modified Koizumi suture method. The sham group and the model group received no treatment. The acupuncture group received cluster needling of scalp acupuncture, the rehabilitation group received treadmill training, and the acupuncture-rehabilitation group received both acupuncture and treadmill training. Three days, seven days and 14 days after modeling, their neurological function was assessed with modified Neurological Severity Score (mNSS) and Rota-rod test, and the expression of cleaved-caspase-8, cleaved-caspase-3 and cIAP1 protein in cerebral ischemic penumbra were detected with Western blotting. Results Compared with the model group, the mNSS scores decreased, the retention time of Rota-rod test increased, the expression of cleaved-caspase-8, cleaved-caspase-3 protein decreased and the expression of cIAP1 protein increased in each treatment group at each time point (P<0.05). Compared with the other two treatment groups, the mNSS scores further decreased, the retention time further increased, the expression of cleaved-caspase-8, cleaved-caspase-3 protein further decreased, and the expression of cIAP1 protein further increased (P<0.05) seven days and 14 days after modeling in the acupuncture-rehabilitation group.Conclusion Acupuncture-rehabilitation therapy can improve the neurological function in rats with cerebral ischemia, that is better than the simple acupuncture or exercise, which may relate to the inhibition of caspase-8 and caspase-3 protein activation, and promotion of cIAP1 protein expression, to inhibit the apoptotic caspases cascade reaction.