Li Fang, Yan Chao-Qun, Lin Li-Ting, Li Hui, Zeng Xiang-Hong, Liu Yi, Du Si-Qi, Zhu Wen, Liu Cun-Zhi
Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Capital Medical University, 23 Meishuguanhou Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100010, China.
Graduate School, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 312, Anshan West Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300193, China.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2015 Apr 28;15:133. doi: 10.1186/s12906-015-0656-x.
Decreased cognition is recognized as one of the most severe and consistent behavioral impairments in dementia. Experimental studies have reported that acupuncture may improve cognitive deficits, relieve vascular dementia (VD) symptoms, and increase cerebral perfusion and electrical activity.
Multi-infarction dementia was modeled in rats with 3% microemboli saline suspension. Two weeks after acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36), all rats were subjected to a hidden platform trial to test their 3-day spatial memory using the Morris water maze test. To estimate the numbers of pyramidal neuron, astrocytes, and synaptic boutons in hippocampal CA1 area, we adopted an unbiased stereology method to accurately sample and measure the size of cells.
We found that acupuncture at ST36 significantly decreased the escape latency of VD rats. In addition, acupuncture significantly increased the pyramidal neuron number in hippocampal CA1 area (P < 0.05) and tended to decrease the number of astrocytes (P = 0.063). However, there was no significant change in the synaptic bouton number of hippocampal CA1 area in any of the groups (P > 0.05).
These findings suggest that acupuncture may improve cognitive deficits and increase pyramidal neuron number of hippocampal CA1 area in VD rats.
认知能力下降被认为是痴呆症中最严重且持续存在的行为障碍之一。实验研究报告称，针灸可能改善认知缺陷、缓解血管性痴呆（VD）症状，并增加脑灌注和电活动。
用3%微栓塞盐水悬液在大鼠中建立多梗死性痴呆模型。在足三里（ST36）针刺两周后，所有大鼠均接受隐藏平台试验，使用莫里斯水迷宫测试来检测它们3天的空间记忆。为了估计海马CA1区锥体神经元、星形胶质细胞和突触小体的数量，我们采用无偏倚的体视学方法准确采样并测量细胞大小。
我们发现针刺ST36可显著降低VD大鼠的逃避潜伏期。此外，针刺显著增加了海马CA1区锥体神经元数量（P < 0.05），并倾向于减少星形胶质细胞数量（P = 0.063）。然而，任何一组海马CA1区的突触小体数量均无显著变化（P > 0.05）。
这些发现表明，针灸可能改善VD大鼠的认知缺陷并增加海马CA1区锥体神经元数量。
