Effect of electroacupuncture pretreatment with different waveforms on septic brain injury in rats / 临床麻醉学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the effects of three pretreatments of electroacupuncture with different waveforms for septic brain injury in rats, and to explore the optimal waveform. Methods Eighty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into five groups (n = 16)sham group,cecal ligation and puncture group (group CLP),continuous wave group (group CW),dilata-tional wave group (group DW)and intermittent wave group (group IW).A rat sepsis model was pre-pared by cecal ligation and puncture.Brain water content was detected.Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α,interleukin(IL)-6,malondialdehyde (MDA)and superoxide dismutase (SOD)in serum and frontal cortex were detected 48 h after sham or CLP operation.Pathological changes of frontal cortex,ex-pression of Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4),and apoptosis of nerve cells were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E),immunohistochemistry and TUNEL assay,respectively.Results Com-pared with the sham group,encephaledema,as well as brain injury and neuron apoptosis increased in group CLP (P <0.05).Concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α,interleukin-6,and malondialdehyde in serum and frontal cortex significantly increased,and the activities of superoxide dismutase significantly de-creased (P < 0.05 ).The expression of TLR4 significantly increased (P < 0.05 ).Compared with group CLP,the aforementioned indicators in the continuous,dilatational,and intermittent wave groups significantly improved (P < 0.05 ).Compared among the electroacupunctured groups,the effect of dilatational wave was the most significant,followed by intermittent wave,and continuous wave was the least one (P <0.05).Conclusion EA pretreatment with different waveforms at Baihui and Tsusanli acupoints could reduce the septic brain injury,and DW might be the best one.The mechanism might be related with the inhibition of inflammation and oxidative stress response and the decrease in nerve cell apoptosis.