The Basic Research On Electropuncture Treatment In Experimental Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia (VD) is a chronic progressive disease, whose incidence rate has a tendency to increase by degrees year after year. Up until now, there is no effective and satisfactory methods to treat it, so more and more researchers focus on VD.In the experiment,the animal models were established in Wistar rats by injecting embolus through the left external carotid artery. By applying electropuncture, the author has observed its effects on rats' memory and learning ability with rat shuttle devices, the expressions of c-fos mRNA in hippocampus with In Situ Hybridization, the expressions of c-fos ^ bcl-2 and bax proteins in hippocampus with ABC immunohistochemistry, apoptotsis in hippocampus with Tunel, the content of somatostatin (SS) in brain with radioimmunoassay, and the content of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in brain with colorimetric method.The results show that: acupuncture can significantly improve the memory ability of VD rats; acupuncture can increase positve expression of c-fos mRNA and protein in the region of hippocampus and cortex and protect damaged nerve cells on ischemic region by electropuncture; acupuncture can increase the number of positive Bcl-2 protein in the region of hippocampus and cortex and inhibit apoptosis; acupuncture can abate programmed cell death in the region of hippocampus and cortex and inhibit apoptosis to a certain extent; acupunture can increase the content of SS in brain , which can nourish nerve cells and promote the recovery of damaged nerve cells;acupuncture can regulate the activity of AChE and influence the content of Ach in brain and improve the ability of memory.The article explores further the mechanism of electropuncture treatment on VD and supplies the theoretical basis to the clinic.