| Objective:Spinal Cord injury(SCI) is a serious traumatic disease of the central nervous system with high mortality and disability, SCI is catastrophic damage for humans relative to the other types of diseases. The direct cause of SCI is the spinal cord trauma or pathological damage, which cause the dysfunction of somatic, motor, sensory and autonomic nerve below the injury. SCI will cause lifelong disease to patients once it happens. Common consequences like physical disabilities or physical dysfunction represent a tremendous burden on patients, families and societies. Thus, the treatment of SCI has been the hot spot for medical research, and will receives more and more attention. This study is based on the clinical and experimental research of pulse electro-acupuncture treatment of central nervous system damage in the past. In order to investigate the influence on the expression of MEK2 and p-ERK1 and assess the locomotor function in the 14th day post-Spinal Cord Injury(SCI) rats which had had different electro-acupuncture(EA) treatment, to elucidate the possible role of MEK2 and p-ERK1 in the development of experimental SCI and the effect of different EA. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of different electro-acupuncture against spinal cord injury, and the nerve regeneration after spinal cord injury in different EA and axon conduction function mechanism. In order to provide the experimental basis for clinical application of acupuncture treatment of spinal cord injury, eventually to promote the development of acupuncture theories.Methods:Adult male Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were randomly divided into normal control group(n=20), sham operation group (no operation, without SCI nor treatment, n=20), SCI model group (SCI-induction without treatment, n=20), pulsed EA group(SCI-induction with pulse-EA treatment, n=20), and music EA group(SCI-induction with music-EA treatment, n=20).SCI model was established by using the modified Allen’s method. Two different electric acupuncture group were under different acupuncture intervention on "Dazhui", "Mingmeng".1 times per day,20 minutes at a time. The normal control group, sham operation group were also loosely immobilized similar to the EA groups, to ensure the same processing conditions.14 days after SCI, Basso-Beattic-Bresnahan(BBB) scale, a neurologic evaluation method, was performed to assess the locomotor function of rats. HE staining and Nissl’s staining were used to observe the pathological changes of anterior horn of SCI rats. The expression of MEK2 and p-ERK1 was detected by using Western blot and Immunohistochemical method.Results:The BBB score of SCI model group are significantly lower than normal control group and sham operation group, while pulsed-EA group and music-EA group could reverse it (P<0.01), while there was no statistical differences between the two treatment group(P>0.05). The results of HE staining and Nissl’s staining showed that the two kinds of treatment could improve this pathological changes. The expression of MEK2, p-ERKl in SCI model group increased, while there was no statistical differences (P>0.05), the two kinds of treatment could up-regulate the level of expression of MEK2 and p-ERK1 more significantly, but also had no statistical differences (P>0.05), and there was no statistical differences between the two treatment group (P>0.05) in the same time.Conclusion:The modified Allen’s method can better simulate the pathological characteristic of SCI and the clinical manifestations of successful SCI model. The treatment which focus on Du meridian can improve hindlimb movement function in SCI rats accordingly. The levels of MEK2 and p-ERK1 in SCI rats were higher than normal. The pulse-and music-EA treatments may effectively induce the levels of MEK2 and p-ERK1 in spinal cord, then promote the recovery of hindlimb function of SCI rats; and the effectiveness of music-EA offered a good trend in recovery than that of pulse-EA treatment. |
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