1 Center for Neuroscience, Shantou University Medical College, 22 Xin Ling Road, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, P.R. China.
Am J Chin Med. 2017;45(1):37-52. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X17500045. Epub 2017 Jan 9.
Spinal cord injury is a devastating neurological disease in desperate need of a cure. We have previously shown that overexpression of the adhesion molecule L1 contributes to locomotor recovery after injury and were therefore interested in how electro-acupuncture would influence the expression of this molecule. Here, we investigated the effects of electro-acupuncture at "Jiaji" points (EX-B2), newly established by us, in young adult mice to determine whether improved recovery via electro-acupuncture could be due to enhanced L1 expression. Locomotor function, as evaluated by the Basso Mouse Scale score and by catwalk gait parameters, was improved by electro-acupuncture at different time points after injury in parallel with enhanced levels of L1 expression. Interestingly, the levels of the astrocytic marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were also increased, but only in the early phase after injury, being reduced at later stages during recovery. Acupuncture alone showed less pronounced changes in expression of these molecules. We propose that electro-acupuncture improves regeneration in part by promoting the L1 expression and beneficial activation of stem cells, and by differentially modulating the expression of GFAP by promoting regeneration-conductive astrocytic responses at initial stages and reducing regeneration-adversive activation in the secondary stages. Expression of the stem cell marker nestin was upregulated by electro-acupuncture in the acute stage. The combined observations show for the first time in mice the beneficial functions of electro-acupuncture at Jiaji points in the spinal cord injury mouse model and provide novel insights into some molecular mechanisms underlying electro-acupuncture in spinal cord injury.
脊髓损伤是一种毁灭性的神经系统疾病，急需治愈。我们之前已经表明，黏附分子 L1 的过表达有助于损伤后的运动功能恢复，因此我们对电针对这种分子的表达有何影响感兴趣。在这里，我们研究了新建立的“夹脊穴”（EX-B2）电针对年轻成年小鼠的影响，以确定电针通过改善恢复是否可以归因于 L1 表达的增强。通过 Basso 小鼠评分和步态参数评估的运动功能，在损伤后不同时间点的电针治疗与 L1 表达水平的增强平行改善。有趣的是，星形胶质细胞标志物胶质纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）的水平也增加，但仅在损伤后的早期阶段增加，在恢复的后期阶段减少。单独的针刺显示这些分子表达的变化不那么明显。我们提出，电针通过促进 L1 表达和有利于干细胞的激活，以及通过在初始阶段促进有利于再生的星形胶质细胞反应并在次级阶段减少不利于再生的激活，部分改善了再生。在急性期，电针上调了干细胞标志物巢蛋白的表达。这些综合观察结果首次在小鼠中证明了夹脊穴电针在脊髓损伤小鼠模型中的有益作用，并为电针对脊髓损伤的一些分子机制提供了新的见解。
