Abstract
We evaluated the effect of Jiaji electroacupuncture on cell proliferation and the expression of markers of endogenous neural stem cell activation after complete spinal cord transection. Female Wistar rats were assigned to 4 groups (n = 24 each): a sham-operated group, a control group, a Jiaji electroacupuncture group, and a Jiaji electroacupuncture preconditioning group. Motor function was significantly improved in the acupuncture groups compared to the control group at 7 and 14 d. Numbers of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-, nestin-, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells were significantly greater in the acupuncture groups than in the controls at each time point. Expression of nestin and GFAP mRNA was significantly higher in the acupuncture groups than in the controls at each time point. Thus, Jiaji electroacupuncture and preconditioning may promote the proliferation of endogenous neural stem cells after spinal cord transection.
References
Lie D C, Song H, Colamarino SA, et al. Neurogenesis in the adult brain: New strategies for central nervous system diseases. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol 2004, 44: 399–421
Zhang H, Yin Z S. Progression on repairing experimental spinal cord injury by neural stem cells (in Chinese). Foreign Med Sci (Biomed Engineer Fascicle), 2005, 28: 160–163
Ingras S. Reaction of cells to the galvanic current in tissue cultures. Proc Socexpbiol Med, 1920, 17: 189–198
Qun L. Electrical stimulation promotes proliferation and differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells in normal and injured spinal cord (in Chinese). Acupunct Res, 2008, 33: 34–36, 40
Zhao M, Song B, Pu J, et al. Electrical signals control wound healing through phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase-gamma and PTEN. Nature, 2006, 442: 457–460
Cui X J, Li Y W, Chen D F, et al. Effect of Du Channel electrotherapy on neural stem cell following injuried spinal cord (in Chinese). Anat Res, 2002, 24: 180–183
Ding Y, Yan Q, Ruan J W, et al. Electro-acupuncture promotes survival, differentiation of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells as well as functional recovery in the spinal cord-transected rats. BMC Neurosci, 2009, 10: 35
He L N, Yuan Z, Chen W, et al. Advance in empirical and clinical research of electrical stimulation for spinal cord injury (in Chinese). Chin J Rehabilit Theory Pract, 2009, 15: 720–722
Wang Z Y, Sun Z R, Liu R S. Effects of Jiaji electroacupuncture on cortical somatosensory evoked potentials in rats with spinal cord injury (in Chinese). Chin J Rehabilit Theory Pract, 2009, 15: 938–941
Cheng D A. The Study of Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Beijing: People’s Medical Publishing House, 1955
Gao W B. New Therapy for Nerve Diseases With Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Beijing: People’s Medical Health Publishing House, 2002
Wang X J, Kong K M. Research evolution of electric stimulus and spinal regeneration (in Chinese). J Shantou Univ Med College, 2002, 15: 58–60
Li T Y. Efficacy of spinal cord injury treated by Jiaji-electroacu-puncture (in Chinese). Shanghai J Acupunct Moxibustion, 2002, 21: 42
Wu Y G, Sun Z R, Li X Y, et al. Studies on the influence of acupuncture on the changes of SCBF in injured rat spinal cord (in Chinese). Chin J Tradit Med Sci Technol, 1995, 2: 14–16
Borgens R B, Blight A R, Murphy D J, et al. Transected dorsal column axons within the guinea pig spinal cord regenerate in the presence of an applied electric field. J Comp Neurol, 1986, 250: 168–180
Fehlings M G, Tator C H, Linden R D. The effect of direct-current field on recovery from experimental spinal cord injury. J Neurosurg, 1988, 68: 781–792
Dong Y Q. The therapeutic effect of pulsed electric field on experimental spinal cord injury (in Chinese). Chin J Surg, 1992, 30: 180–183, 191
Zhang Z Y, Cui Y H, Yan Z G. The effect of electric acupuncture on apoptosis in spinal cord injury (in Chinese). Chin J Clin Rehabilit, 2002, 6: 818–819
Zhang Z Y, Yu A S, Yan Z G. Effects of electroacupuncture on expressions of bcl-2 mRNA and protein in the spinal cord in rats with early spinal cord injury (in Chinese). Chin Acupunct Moxibustion, 2003, 23: 473–476
Borgens R B, Blight A R, McGinnis M E. Functional recovery after spinal cord hemisection in guinea pigs: The effects of applied electric fields. J Comp Neurol, 1990, 296: 634–653
Coumans J V, Lin T T, Dai H N, et al. Axonal regeneration and functional recovery after complete spinal cord transection in rats by delayed treatment with transplants and neurotrophins. J Neurosci, 2001, 21: 9334–9344
Potas J R, Zheng Y, Moussa C, et al. Augmented locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury in the athymic nude rat. J Neurotrauma, 2006, 23: 660–673
Lin W Z. Experimental Acupuncture Science. Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House, 1997
Zhang L, Xiong D L, Chen K H, et al. Effects of electro-acupuncture combined with bone marrow stromal cell transplantation on recovery of neurological function in rats with spinal cord injury (in Chinese). J Clin Rehabilit Tissue Eng Res, 2009, 13: 5217–5220
Basso D M, Beattie M S, Bresnahan J C. Graded histological and locomotor outcomes after spinal cord contusion using the NYU weight-drop device versus transection. Exp Neurol, 1996, 139: 244–256
Pfaffl M W, Horgan G W, Dempfle L. Relative expression software tool (REST) for group-wise comparison and statistical analysis of relative expression results in real-time PCR. Nucleic Acids Res, 2002, 30: e36
Gritti A, Parati E A, Cova L, et al. Multipotential stem cells from the adult mouse brain proliferate and self-renew in response to basic fibroblast growth factor. J Neurosci, 1996, 16: 1091–1100
Ao Q, Wang A J, Chen G Q, et al. Combined transplantation of neural stem cells and olfactory ensheathing cells for the repair of spinal cord injuries. Med Hypotheses, 2007, 69: 1234–1237
Iriki A, Sakura O. The neuroscience of primate intellectual evolution: Natural selection and passive and intentional niche construction. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2008, 363: 2229–2241
Lang B, Liu H L, Liu R, et al. Astrocytes in injured adult rat spinal cord may acquire the potential of neural stem cells. Neuroscience, 2004, 128: 775–783
Tatlisumak T, Takano K, Carano R A, et al. Delayed treatment with an adenosine kinase inhibitor, GP683, attenuates infarct size in rats with temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion. Stroke, 1998, 29: 1952–1958
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Rights and permissions
This article is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section either on this page or in the PDF for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team.
About this article
Cite this article
Teng, X., Wang, D., Zhang, X. et al. Effect of Jiaji electroacupuncture in transected rat spinal cord. Chin. Sci. Bull. 57, 762–768 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-011-4839-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-011-4839-7
Keywords
- Jiaji electroacupuncture
- spinal transection
- rat
- endogenous neural stem cells