Acupuncture stimulation at acupoints one day after
cerebral ischemia significantly reduced the cerebral infarct area and
neurological deficit scores accompanied by increasing release of neurotrophic
factors and activating anti-apoptosis process in the brain of stroke model
according to a study recently reported in the journal BMC Complementary and
Alternative Medicine.
It has been reported here before that earlier acupuncture
as an adjunct helped improve symptoms of patients with early stage stroke.
However, how acupuncture exerts its therapeutic effect is not clear.
Recently researchers in Taiwan investigated the effect of
early acupuncture stimulation on stroke model and the mechanism of action of
acupuncture. Electroacupuncture stimulation at GV20 and GV14 was applied on
mild cerebral ischemia injury rat, a mild stroke model, one day after ischemia
formation for 2 days. Neurological functions such as motor, sensory, balance
and reflex were assessed before and after acupuncture.
It was found that acupuncture stimulation significantly
improved neurological functions and reduced cerebral infarct area compared with
baseline and non-acupoint treated group. Biochemical studies showed that
acupuncture markedly increased the release of neurotrophic factors and initiated
anti-apoptotic process compared with controls. Blockers of neurotrophic factors
stopped the neuroprotective effect of acupuncture in the stroke model.
The study suggests that early acupuncture use may act as
neuroprotective therapy in the treatment of stroke.
Reference:
Cheng et al., Electroacupuncture-like
stimulation at Baihui and Dazhui acupoints exerts neuroprotective effects
through activation of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor-mediated
MEK1/2/ERK1/2/ p90RSK/bad signaling pathway in mild transient focal cerebral
ischemia in rats. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine2014,14:92 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/92
No comments:
Post a Comment