The Effects of Different Electro-acupuncture Intervention on Learning and Memory Abilities and Expression of Hippocampal Astrocytes in Rapid Aging Mouse Model of Senia Dementia / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

ABSTRACT

Objective: To observe the effects of music electro-acupuncture and pulsed electro-acupuncture on locomotor avtivity and hippocampal astrocytes in fast-aging (SAMP8) mice, and to compare the anti-dementia mechanism.Methods: Thirty 8-month-old male SAMP8 mice were randomly divided into model group (group M), music electroacupuncture group (group MA), pulsed electro-acupuncture group (group EA) (n=10), with homologous normal aging SAMR1 mice as control group (group C) (n=10) . Acupuncture stimulation was applied to"Baihui" (GV20) 、"Yintang" (GV29) and"Renzhong" (DU26) for 20 min per day for 15 days. The Morris water maze was used to assess learningmemorize ability. Immunohistochemical DAB staining was used to observe GFAP exptession in hippocampus. Detect GFAP protein levels by Western blot in hippocampus. Results: The Morris water maze test showed Compared with group C, the escape latency were increased (P ＜ 0.01), swimming distance were increased in space exploration experiment in group M (P ＜ 0.01) . Compared with group M, the escape latency were reduced in group MA and EA (P ＜ 0.01, P ＜ 0.05) and the swimming distance were shortened (all P ＜ 0.05) . The immunohistochemical DAB staining showed Compared with group C, the average optical density of GFAP in the hippocampal CA1 area of group M increased significantly (P ＜0.01); the optical density of GFAP in CA1 area of hippocampus in both groups MA and EA was significantly decreased (all P ＜ 0.01), while the optical density of GFAP in MA group was lower than that of EA group (P ＜ 0.05) . Western blot test showed Compared with group C, the expression of GFAP protein obviously increased (P ＜ 0.01) . Compared with group M, the expression of GFAP protein obviously decreased and had a downregulation tendency in group MA and EA (all P ＜ 0.05), while the expression of GFAP protein decreased in MA group compare with EA group (P ＜ 0.05) .Conclusion: Both music electro-acupuncture and pulsed electro-acupuncture can improve the learning and memory abilities of SAMP8 mice and decrease the expression of GFAP, which may be related to its mechanism of reducing neuroinflammatory reaction, improving apoptosis and eventually protecting neurons, and music electro-acupuncture has a better tendency than pulsed electro-acupuncture.