| Background and Objective:With the aging of the population growing and life rhythm speeding up, cerebral infarction has become a main disease that threatens the health of middle-aged and elderly people. Despite the constant improvement of medical and health condition of continuous improvement, cerebral infarction mortality has been significantly declined. However, the sequelae of severe nerve dysfunction after cerebral infarction (such as:hemiplegia, aphasia, visual impairment, dysphagia, disorder of intelligence, depression, etc.) leads to heavy burden to patients, the family and the society. In order to improve the quality of life of the patients, the further research will focus on the effective treatment measures. Many studies have been shown that electrical stimulation can promote the recovery of motor function of the paralyzed limbs and improve the ability of learning and memory. The traditional electrical stimulation treatment is mainly to stimulate the hemiparalysis limb, whereas few experiments concentrate on bilateral limbs with treatment of electric stimulation. Clinic studies have also found in patients with cerebral infarction that the amelioration of neurologic function by bilateral electric stimulation is better than that by the therapy of hemiparalysis limb, however, the mechanism of treatment with electric stimulation has not been fully clarified. In the present study, we focus on the influence of hemiparalysis limb and bilateral electric stimulation on recovery of neurologic dysfunction and expression of Rho kinase in experimental cerebral infarction rats, which may provide a new theoretical evidence in treatment and rehabilitation of cerebral infarction with electric stimulation.Methods:Healthy male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, making left middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO), were randomly divided into control, unilateral electric stimulation, bilateral electrical stimulation, sham operation groups, each group including 36 rats again divided into treatment 3 d,7d,14d, and 21d four subgroups (3d and21d subgroups including 12 rats,7d and 14d subgroups including 6 rats). After cerebral infarction for 24h, the rats were treated with or without electric stimulation everyday according to different groups. All groups were treated for 6d with Id rest, excluding 3d group. In the corresponding point in time,6 rats were selected from every subgroup for evaluating motor function and the expression of Rho kinase in the border zone of cerebral infarction using beam walking test (BWT) and immunohistochemistory. In addition,6 rats were selected from 3d and 21d subgroups and the cerebral infarction volume was also determined by 2, 3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining in different time points after cerebral infarction.Results:The control group showed improvement in motor function afterl4d (p< 0.05). The motor function was significantly improved in treated groups with electric stimulation compared with control group after treatment 7d (p< 0.05), with the effect of bilateral electric stimulation being better than unilateral electric stimulation after treatment 14d (p< 0.05). The expression of Rho kinase in control group was beginning increased on 7d, and peak expression on 14d, which continues to express on 21d. The expression of Rho kinase in treated groups was significantly decreased than control group after treatment 14d (p< 0.05),and the decrease of the expression of Rho kinase in bilateral electric stimulation was better than that of unilateral electric stimulation (p<0.05).The cerebral infarction volume in treated groups was significantly reduced than control group on 21d (p<0.05), but no difference in two treated groups (p>0.05)Conclusion:1. After the successful left middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO), the motor function of paralyzed limbs of control group was improved after treatment 14d, which indicated that natural motor function recovery process exists after acute cerebral infarction.2. Electric stimulation can improve motor function of paralyzed limbs and downregulate the expression of Rho kinase in the border zone of cerebral infarction, with the effect of bilateral electric stimulation being better than unilateral electric stimulation; Electric stimulation can reduce cerebral infarction volume, with no obvious difference between bilateral electric stimulation and unilateral electric stimulation.3. Early electric stimulation can enhance the recovery of motor function of cerebral infarction in rats and can reduce cerebral infarction volume, which may be associated with the downregulation of expression of Rho kinase in penumbra of cerebral infarction. |
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