Wu Jia-Jia, Lu Ye-Chen, Hua Xu-Yun, Ma Shu-Jie, Xu Jian-Guang
School of Rehabilitation Science, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
School of Rehabilitation Science, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China; Department of Trauma and Orthopedics, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
World Neurosurg. 2018 Jun;114:e267-e282. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2018.02.173. Epub 2018 Mar 7.
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to provide a longitudinal description of cortical plasticity caused by electroacupuncture (EA) of sciatic nerve transection and direct anastomosis in rats.
Sixteen rats in a sciatic nerve transection and direct anastomosis model were randomly divided into intervention and control groups. EA intervention in the position of ST-36, GB-30 was conducted continuously for 4 months in the intervention group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and gait assessment were performed every month after intervention.
The somatosensory area was more activated in the first 2 months and then deactivated in the rest 2 months when EA was applied. The pain-related areas had the same activation pattern as the somatosensory area. The limbic/paralimbic areas fluctuated more during the EA intervention, which was not constantly activated or deactivated as previous studies reported. We attributed such changes in somatosensory and pain-related areas to the gradual reduction of sensory afferentation. The alterations in limbic/paralimbic system might be associated with the confrontation between the upregulating effect of paresthesia or pain and the downregulating effect of EA intervention through the autonomic nerve system. The gait analysis showed significantly higher maximum contact mean intensity in the intervention group.
The alterations in the brain brought about by the long-term therapeutic effect of EA could be described as a synchronized activation pattern in the somatosensory and pain-related areas and a fluctuating pattern in the limbic/paralimbic system.
我们利用功能磁共振成像对大鼠坐骨神经横断及直接吻合术后电针（EA）引起的皮质可塑性进行纵向描述。
将16只建立坐骨神经横断及直接吻合模型的大鼠随机分为干预组和对照组。干预组在ST-36、GB-30穴位连续进行电针干预4个月。干预后每月进行功能磁共振成像和步态评估。
应用电针时，体感区在前2个月激活增强，后2个月失活。疼痛相关区域的激活模式与体感区相同。边缘/边缘旁区域在电针干预期间波动更大，并非如先前研究报道的那样持续激活或失活。我们将体感区和疼痛相关区域的这种变化归因于感觉传入的逐渐减少。边缘/边缘旁系统的改变可能与感觉异常或疼痛的上调作用与电针通过自主神经系统的下调作用之间的对抗有关。步态分析显示干预组的最大接触平均强度显著更高。
电针的长期治疗作用所引起的大脑变化可描述为体感区和疼痛相关区域的同步激活模式以及边缘/边缘旁系统的波动模式。
