The purpose of this study was to examine whether acupuncture improves spatial cognitive impairment induced by repeated corticosterone (CORT) administration in rats. The effect of acupuncture on the acetylcholinergic system was also investigated in the hippocampus. Male rats were subcutaneously injected with CORT (5 mg/kg) once daily for 21 days. Acupuncture stimulation was performed at the HT7 (Sinmun) acupoint for 5 min before CORT injection. HT7 acupoint is located at the end of transverse crease of ulnar wrist of forepaw. In CORT-treated rats, reduced spatial cognitive function was associated with significant increases in plasma CORT level (+36%) and hippocampal CORT level (+204%) compared with saline-treated rats. Acupuncture stimulation improved the escape latency for finding the platform in the Morris water maze. Consistently, the acupuncture significantly alleviated memory-associated decreases in cholinergic immunoreactivity and mRNA expression of BDNF and CREB in the hippocampus. These findings demonstrate that stimulation of HT7 acupoint produced significant neuroprotective activity against the neuronal impairment and memory dysfunction.
Acupuncture Stimulation Alleviates Corticosterone-Induced Impairments of Spatial Memory and Cholinergic Neurons in Rats
Bombi Lee,Bongjun Sur,Sunoh Kwon,Eun-Yee Jung,I. Shim,Hyejung Lee,D. Hahm
Published 2011 in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2011
- Venue
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Publication date
2011-12-15
- Fields of study
Medicine
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
CONCEPTS
- acupuncture stimulation
A brief needle-based intervention applied at a selected acupoint before corticosterone administration in the rat experiment.
Aliases: acupuncture
- bdnf
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a hippocampal gene product measured at the mRNA level.
Aliases: brain-derived neurotrophic factor
- cholinergic immunoreactivity
An immunohistochemical measure of cholinergic neuron-related signal in the hippocampus.
Aliases: cholinergic IR
- corticosterone administration
Repeated subcutaneous corticosterone injection used to induce stress-related cognitive impairment in rats.
Aliases: CORT administration, CORT injection
- creb
cAMP response element-binding protein, a hippocampal gene product measured at the mRNA level.
Aliases: cAMP response element-binding protein
- ht7 acupoint
A forepaw wrist acupoint located at the end of the transverse crease of the ulnar wrist in the rat.
Aliases: Sinmun, HT7
- morris water maze
A spatial learning task that measures how quickly rats find a hidden platform in water.
Aliases: MWM
- spatial cognitive impairment
A deficit in spatial learning and memory assessed in the rat behavioral model.
Aliases: spatial memory impairment, spatial memory deficit
REFERENCES
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