[Effect of electroacupuncture combined with aerobic exercise on IGF-I /Akt pathway in skeletal muscle of aging rats].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the effects of low-frequency electroacupuncture combined with aerobic exercise on sarocopenia, and the effects of IGF-I /Akt and its downstream signaling pathway-related protein.

METHODS

Naturally aging SD rats were used as research objects. Thirty-two 6-month-old male SD rats weighing 400 to 450 g were bred to 12-month-old and randomly divided into 4 groups according to body weight:Control group(YC, only grasp, fix, put back, without other intervention), electroacupuncture group (YA, electroacupuncture intervention), exercise group (YE, exercise intervention) and electroacupuncture+exercise group (YEA, electroacupuncture combined with exercise intervention). SD rats were continuously intervened from 12 months to 18 months of age. At the end of the experiment, the conditions of naturally aging rats in each group were observed:skeletal muscle wet weight / weight ratio;HE staining morphology of soleus muscle under light microscope; qPCR was used to detect the expression level of IGF-I mRNA in skeletal muscle;the expression of AKT, mTOR, p70S6K and p-p70S6K proteins in rat gastrocnemius was determined by Western blot.

RESULTS

In 18-month-old rats, the intervention period was 6 months. (1) Compared with YC group, YA group and YEA group significantly increased the wet weight / body weight ratio of gastrocnemius muscle in 18 months old rats. YEA group could significantly increase the wet weight / body weight ratio of soleus muscle compared with YC group YC group and YA group (<0.05). (2) Compared with YC group, the increase of the expression of IGF-I mRNA in YEA group was more obvious(=0.051). (3)The expression of p-Akt and p-mTOR in YA group was significantly higher than that in YC group (<0.05), and the expressionof p-mTOR, p-p70S6K also showed an increasing trend in YEA group (>0.05).

CONCLUSION

Electroacupuncture combined with aerobic exercise can attenuate sarocopenia in 18-month-old naturally aging rats. The molecular mechanism may be related to the promotion of protein synthesis by activating the IGF-I / Akt pathway.