| The opinion of"treat disease before it arises"is an import part of basic theory of chinese medicine. It embodies the preventive opinion of Neijing and has a profound influence to the afterworld."Preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion"is one of the methods of"treat disease before it arises". It refers to stimulation of qi and blood within meridians when a person is healthy or before the disease arises, and the internal potentiality of banlancing yin and yang within the body will be moderated so that health protection or alleviation of diseases and disorders could be achieved.The preventive function of preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion has been approved, but the exact mechanism is still in research.As the developing of modern stress theory, the internal protective mechanism has been widely validated. Proper stress induced by some manmade means can prevent or relieve diseases, and the opinion attracts much attention. It has its own character: It does not depend on adding many external materials into the body, but stimulates stress to activate the internal protective mechanism with some physical chemical pretreatment methods, so as to resist the damage of diseases. It is a method which pays much more attention to stimulating self potentiality and adusting from global level. Preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion has the same character so it is worth researching and developing.Menopause is an important transitional period to women from young to old. Insufficiency of kidney essence and exhaustion of"tiangui"during this period cause an sudden change of internal environment and disorder of many systems. If the body of menopause can not adapt the change, the physiological stress in this time will turn into pathological stress and as a result, about 70%～90% women will catch complexed menopause syndrome. The mechanism of menopause syndrome is still unclear. Heat shock protein(HSP) is induced by stress response and it has an intinate relationship with many links during menopause such as neutroendocrine, immunity, antioxidation, estrogen receptor, and insulin receotor, so discussing the function of HSP will benefit the prevention of menopause syndrome.The combination of the opinion of"treat disease before it arises"in Chinese medicine and stress theory in morden westen medicine was the start point of our research. Natual aging rats were chosen to be the model of menopause. A lot of advanced techniques such as immuno-histochemistry, in situ hybridization, radio-immunity, immunoturbidimetric assay and the like methods were used to observe the effect on HSP, stress hormones, neurotransmitters and factors of antioxidation and immunity of different month-aged menopausal rats with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion, so as to discuss the stress mechanism of prevtenting menopause syndrome with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion from the expression of HSP70and HSP70mRNA.Main results and conclusions are as following:1. As the growing of month, the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in different hypothalamus nuclei of menopausal rats presented different distribution: It displayed a wave like increasing in supraoptic nucleus, however, the growth range of the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in paraventricular nucleus and arcuate nucleus descended as the growing of month. It indicated different nuclei had different functions in central stress response during menopause. The descending of CRH in hypothalamus and ascending of ACTH in blood plasma and 5-HT in cerebral cortex showed that the HPA axis was abnormally active during menopause and stress hormones might stimulate the secretion of indoles neurotransmitter through receptor binding.β-EP was one of the inhibiting stress hormones in hypothalamus. It decreased during menopause. Meanwhile, NE in cerebral cortex increased. It suggested that the reducion of inhibiting stress hormones could strengthen the exiting of stress and weaken the inhibitory effects on catecholaminergic neurons. The expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in supraoptic nucleus came down and that in arcuate nucleus went up with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion. It demonstrated that the therapy could decrease the exciting factors, increase the inhibiting factors and alleviate the abnormal activity of centre of stress. Paraventricular nucleus was the central nucleus in stress response, as a result, the effect on it with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion was complicated. The expression of HSP70mRNA was elevated in every month-aged group. It indicated that preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion could strengthen the vigilance of paraventricular nucleus so that much more HSP70mRNA was transcribed to protect the body. However, the expression of HSP70 in 12 and 14 month-aged groups decreased. It might be associated with that HSP70 induced by preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion in advance had alleviated tissue damage and stress response. The expression of HSP70 in 16 month-aged group rised. It might be associated with that intracellular harmful substances accumulated at this time and as a result preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion promoted the the expression of HSP70 to protect the body. The down-regulation of CRH with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion was mainly reflected in 12th and 14th month. ACTH in blood plasa increased in 12th month and decreased in 14 th month. The up-regulation ofβ-EP and down-regulation of NE and 5-HT were maily reflected in 12th month. It demonstrated that the effect on central stress hormones and neurotransmitters with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion mainly appeared at early time. However,the effect on the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in hypothalamus nuclei with prevetive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion and the relationship with the secretion of stress hormones and neurotransmitters still need to research further.2. The release of CRH in stress response during menopause inhibited the secretion of GnRH, gonadotropic hormone and estrogen and induced the expression of intracellular HSP. As the growing of month, the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in uterus went up at the beginning and came down in the end. The result might be caused by the following:The increase of CRH and the decrease of estrogen during early menopause weakened the inhibitory effects on HSP. However, tissues and organs declined in the end of menopause, as a result, the determination of protein synthesis decreased. The activity of SOD and NOS in uterus during menopause was weakened significantly. The expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA and the activity of SOD and NOS in uterus were elevated with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion and the influence on the activity of SOD and NOS was mainly refected in 12th and 16th month. It indicated that preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion on Guanyuan point could relieve the abnormal activity of center of stress, promote the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA and the activity of SOD and NOS in uterus so as to maintain the normal structure and function and prolong the retrograde degeneration of uterus. It might be one of mechanisms of protecting uterus with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion.3. The stress response during menopause not only influenced neuroendocrine system, but also effected immunity system. The level of IL-2 and TNF-αin blood serum of menopausal rats decreased. It was possibly caused by inhibitory effects on immunity cell of neurotransmitters and peptide hormones induced by stress response. Meanwhile, the neurotransmitters and peptide hormones could stimulate the expression of HSP in immunity cell, as a result, the expression of HSP70mRNA in spleen during early menopause rised. However, as the growing of month, the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in spleen and the level of IL-2 in blood serum decreased and at the same time, the level of TNF-αin blood serum increased obviously. It showed that self-protected ability and immunity function declined during menopause. And harmful substances accumulated at this time so as to stimulate the synthesis of TNF-α. With preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion, the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in spleen and the level of IL-2 in blood serum went up apparently in 14th and 16th month and the level of TNF-αin blood serum presented an adverse change compared to the model group. It indicated that preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion could regulate the center of stress, strengthen the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA and adjust the synthesis and secretion of IL-2 and TNF-αso as to promote immune response to exogenous antigen, alleviate the autoimmune reaction and damages of tissues and organs and relieve the disorder of immunity function. The effect on immunity during menopause with preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion was benign and bidirectional. And it could prolong the aging through improving the decline of the structure and funcition of immunity system. In summary, preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion on Guanyuan point could stimulate the ability of resisting diseases and meeting emergencies through adjusting the expression of HSP70 and HSP70mRNA in center and periphery of body. It could also alleviate the abnormal activity of center of stress, decrease the secretion of neurotransmitters in brain, promote the activity of SOD and NOS in uterus and regulate the level of IL-2 and TNF-αin blood serum. As a result, preventive acupuncture and preventive moxibustion had benign effects on maintaining homeostasis, moderating the funcition of neuroendocrine and immunity and improving the decline of uterus. |
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