Intervention of blood-letting puncture on 12-well points of hand on activity of nitric oxide synthase after focal cerebral ischemia in rats

Bilan HUANG; Liangzhu YU; Jing CHENG

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Blood-letting puncture on 12-well points of hand is a kind of effective emergent approaches on cerebral apoplexy. It is testified in animal experiment that bleeding on 12-well points of hand can dilate cerebral vessels, enhance blood flow in brain, improve acute anoxic state in ischemic brain tissue and relieve acid toxin due to accumulation of lactate.

OBJECTIVE:

To explore the effects and mechanism of blood-letting puncture of 12-well points of hand nitric oxide (NO) contents and nitricoxide synthase (NOS) activity after cerebral ischemia in rats.

DESIGN:

Randomized controlled animal experiment was designed.

SETTING:

Department of Physiology of Medical Institute of Xianning College.MATERIALS The experiment was performed in Department of Physiology of Medical Institute of Xianning College from March 2003 to February 2004. Totally 84 Wistar rats were employed in the experiment, aged of 2 or 3 months, of either sex, body weighted (230±20) g and provided from Experimental Animal Center of Medical Institute of Xianning College.

METHODS:

Totally 84 rats were randomized into sham operation group,ischemia group and ischemia + bleeding group, 28 rats in each one. Modified Longa method [3] was applied to prepare the model of embolism of cerebral middle artery in rat. In ischemia + bleeding group, after cerebral ischemia, blood-letting puncture was applied with three-edged needle on Shaoshang (LU11), Shangyang (LI1), Zhongchong (PC9), Guanchong (TE1),Shoochong (HT9) and Shaoze (SI1) in sequence firstly on the left foreleg,and then on the right one, corresponding to the analogy of 12-well points of hand of human. One blood drop was just required. NO content and NOS activity were assayed in 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours of ischemia in brain tissue successively in each group.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

NO content and NOS activity in brain tissue in each group.

RESULTS:

① NO content in 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and 4 hours of ischemia in ischemia group was (116.16±26.63), (118.94±24.47),(115.65±25.29) and (108.87±26.52) μmol/L successively and NOS ac tivity was (507.22±92.52), (502.08±92.52), (510.71±96.63) and (495.29-±88.41) μkat/L, which was higher significantly than the sham operation group (t=2.474-4.731, P ＜ 0.05 or 0.001). ② In ischemia + bleeding group,, NO content was (91.8±11.51), (93.55±13.88), (92.52±11.62) and (84.3±11.51) μmol/L successively and NOS activity was (337.6±88.41),(340.99±96.63), (344.48±84.3) and (337.6±90.46) μkat/L, indicating significant difference in comparison with ischemia group (t=2.199-3.507,P ＜ 0.05-0.01).

CONCLUSION:

Blood-letting puncture on 12-well points of hand inhibits the increased NO content and NOS activity in ischemic brain tissue and alleviates the injury of free radical to brain tissue so that the focal brain ischemia of rats is protected.