Neuroprotective effects of different modalities of acupuncture on traumatic spinal cord injury in rats.


Author: Jiang SH1, Tu WZ2, Zou EM2, Hu J2, Wang S2, Li JR3, Wang WS2, He R2, Cheng RD4, Liao WJ1.

Affiliation: 1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Donghu Road, Wuhan, Hubei, China. 2Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Xueyuan Road, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. 3Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Zhejiang Hospital, Lingyin Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. 4Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, Shangtang Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Conference/Journal: Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 
Date published: 2014
Other:
 Volume ID: 2014   ,  Pages: 431580   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.1155/2014/431580   ,  Word Count: 198  
    Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can induce a series of histological, biochemical, and functional changes. Acupuncture is commonly used for SCI patients. Using male rats of spinal cord injury with the New York University (NYU) Impactor, we investigated the response of electroacupuncture (EA), manual acupuncture (MA), and transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation (TAES) at Shuigou (DU26) and Fengfu (DU16) acupoints to understand the effects and mechanisms of acupuncture in neuroprotection and neuronal function recovery after SCI. Histological study showed a restored neural morphology and an increase in the quantity of neurons after EA, MA, and TAES administrations. Acupuncture's antioxidation effects were demonstrated by alleviation of the post-SCI superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity increase and malondialdehyde (MDA) level decrease. The anti-inflammation effect of acupuncture was shown as the reduced expression of inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1 β (IL-1 β ), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF- α ) when SCI was treated. And the antiapoptosis role was approved by TUNEL staining. Our data confirmed that the role of acupuncture in neuroprotection and dorsal neuronal function recovery after rat SCI, especially, EA stimulating at Shuigou (DU26) and Fengfu (DU16) can greatly promote neuronal function recovery, which may result from antioxidation, anti-inflammation, and antiapoptosis effects of acupuncture.

PMID: 24803946