Regulatory effect of electroacupuncture on blood sugar and blood lipoprotein(a)in rats with diabetes mellitus

Jiani WANG; Xuan ZHANG; Yan LI; Zhiyi ZHAO; Qiang CHEN; Ruifeng LI

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Many study results proved that electroacupuncture can cause change of endogenous opioid peptide system.

OBJECTIVE:

To observe the change of blood sugar and blood lipoprotein (a) in rats with diabetes mellitus after electroacupuncture therapy and probe into the effect of opioid peptide system in the treatment for diabetes with electroacupuncture.

DESIGN:

Randomized controlled trial with experimental animals as the subjects.

SETTING:

The experiment was conducted in the Department of Pathophysiology, Medical College of Shandong University.MATERIALS The experiment was completed in the Department of Pathophysiology, Medical College of Shandong University from July 2004 to December 2004. Totally 140 male Wistar rats were involved.

METHODS:

Ten Wistar rats were collected randomly as the blank control group. The other 130 rats were given 20 g/L streptozotocin 50 mg/kg intraperitoneally and the rats in blank control group were given the same volume of saline intraperitoneally. Three weeks later, the tails were cut off and the blood sugar was measured 2 hours after food intake. The rats with obvious rapid sugar tolerance were given foods with high calories for 28 days as the model rats. There were 64 rats were successful models and they were classified into 3 groups randomly, namely model control group( n = 20), electroacupuncture therapy(n=22) and electroacupuncture with naloxone groups( n = 22) . The blood sugar and blood lipoprotein(a) were detected after treatment for the diabetic rats with streptozotocin.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

Blood sugar level and blood lipoprotein(a) of each rat after the final therapy.

RESULTS:

Totally 74 rats entered the result analysis. Electroacupuncture therapy could reduce the blood sugar and blood lipoprotein(a) of diabetes mellitus rats, while rats with naloxone injection before therapy were insensitive to electroacupuncture. [The blood sugar value were(13.91 ± 3.79),( 10.33 ± 2.36), (12.96 ± 2.23)mmol/L in the model control group, electroacupuncture therapy group, electroacupuncture with naloxone group respectively; while the level of blood lipoprotein(a) were(13.75 ±2.69),( 10.81 ± 2.96), (13.01 ± 3.23)mg/L respectively].

CONCLUSION:

Electroacupuncture therapy can reduce the level of blood sugar and the risk of atherosclerosis in rats with diabetes mellitus. Although the mechanism can not be explained through the meridian theory, according to the experimental result that blood sugar and blood lipoprotein(a) were no longer intervened by electroacupuncture therapy after injecting naloxone, it is presumed that electroacupuncture therapy can exert its intervention effect on blood sugar and blood lipoprotein(a)through opiate system.