Possible mechanism of electroacupuncture preconditioning for hypoxia/ischemic brain injury protection effect in neonatal rats / 中国中西医结合杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the possible mechanism of electroacupuncture preconditioning (EAPC) and combined with ATP-sensitive potassium channel (KATP) blocker preconditioning for hypoxia/ischemic brain injury protection by observing the changes of the immediate genes (c-fos and c-jun protein content) in brain at the early stage after cerebral hypoxia/ischemic injury, and the effect of EAPC on these changes.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Integrated density (ID) of c-fos and c-jun expression was measured by Western blot and computerized image processing.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Hypoxia/ischemia could induce c-fos and c-jun protein in both cerebral cortex and hippocampus simultaneously, with the peak appearing 2-4 hrs later, and the expression in hyppocampus was higher than that in cortex. EAPC could lower KATP blocker induced permanent high expression in hyppocampus.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The effect of EAPC preconditioning in antagonizing cerebral hypoxia/ischemic injury may be related with its action in activating KATP, inhibiting the neuron apoptosis induced by the immediate genes at early stage of injury.</p>