[Effects of Sagacious Confucius' Pillow Elixir on cognitive function in type 2 diabetic rats].

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the leading threat to human health in China, and severe cognitive impairment often occurs in most T2DM patients. Although Sagacious Confucius' Pillow Elixir is a type of classical traditional Chinese medicine for cognitive impairment in clinic, the mechanism has not yet been completely defined. In this study, an experimental model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was established by injecting Sprague Dawley (SD) rats with streptozocin (STZ), so as to compare the learning and memory ability, hippocampal neurons pathological changes, beta amyloid protein (A beta) content, degree of Tau protein phosphorylation, blood glucose and insulin level. The results showed that the Sagacious Confucius' Pillow Elixir could improve the learning and memory ability of STZ injected rats, reduce the level of A beta content both in hippocampus and serum, effectively reduce Tau protein phosphorylation degree, and also significantly alleviate hippocampal pathological injury, blood glucose, insulin and other basic indicators. The results showed that Sagacious Confucius' Pillow Elixir can alleviate the hippocampal pathological damage caused by STZ, and is expected to provide a theoretical basis for human T2DM patients in clinical adjuvant therapy.

[Effects of Electroacupuncture Intervention on Oxygen Free Radicals and Expression of Apoptosis-related Proteins in Rats with Ischemic Learning and Memory Disorder].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) therapy on levels of oxygen free radicals (OFR) and hippocampal apoptosis-related protein expression in ischemic learning-memory disorder rats so as to investigate its mechanisms underlying improvement of ischemic learning-memory impairment. METHODS: A total of 60 SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation (sham), model, medication, and EA groups, with 15 rats in each group. The learning-memory disorder model was made by occlusion of bilateral carotid arteries. EA (2- 3 Hz, 2 mA) was applied to "Zhi San Zhen" ["Shenting" (GV 24) and bilateral "Benshen" (GB 13)] for 30 min, once a day for 3 weeks. The rats of the medication group were treated by lavage of Aricept (0.03 mg . kg(-1) . d(-1)), once daily for 3 weeks. The rats' learning-memory ability was detected by Morris water maze tests and the state of hippocampal apoptosis cells was observed by light microscope after TUNEL staining and the expression of hippocampal Bcl-2, Bax and Caspase-3 proteins was detected by immunohistochemistry. Serum and hippocampal superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were detected by chemical colorimetric analysis. RESULTS: Compared with the sham group, the escape latencies (place-navigation) after modeling were evidently prolonged, and the times of target-platform crossing in 90 sec (spatial probe test) considerably reduced in the model group (P<0.01), suggesting an impairment of learning-memory ability. After the treatment for 21 d, the increased escape latency and the reduced target-platform crossing time in both EA and medication groups were reversed in comparison with the model group (P<0.01), suggesting an improvement of memory ability, and the effect of the EA group was significantly superior to that of the medication group (P<0.05). Compared with the sham group, the number of apoptotic cells in hippocampal CA 1- CA 3 regions, and the expression levels of hippocampal Bcl-2, Bax and Caspase-3 proteins, and serum and hippocampal MDA contents were significantly increased in the model group (P<0.01), while serum and hippocampal SOD and GSH-Px levels obviously decreased in the model group (P<0.01). After the treatment for 21 days, compared to the model group, the number of the apoptotic cells, the expression levels of hippocampal Bax and Caspase--3 proteins, and the contents of serum and hippocampal MDA were notably decreased in the EA and medication groups (P<0.01), whereas, Bcl-2 protein expression levels, and serum and hippocampal SOD and GSH-Px activity were notably up-regulated in the EA and medication groups (P<0.01). The effects of EA group were obviously superior to those of medication group in increasing hippocampal Bcl-2 immunoactivity, serum SOD and GSH-Px and hippocampal GSH-Px activity and in down-regulating serum MDA level (P<0.01, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Electroacupuncture intervention can improve learning-memory ability in ischemic learning-memory disorder rats which may be associated with its effects in reducing blood and hippocampal OFR contents and hippocampal cellular apoptosis.