[Molecular mechanism of the prefrontal cortex involved in electroacupuncture against myocardial ischemia based on metabolomics].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the effects of electroacupuncture(EA) on metabolic patterns of the prefrontal cortex in rats with acute myocardial ischemia.

METHODS

Eighteen SD rats were randomly divided into sham group, model group and EA group, with 6 rats in each group. Rats in the model and EA groups were subject to acute myocardial ischemia by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. For the EA group, EA stimulation (1 mA, 2 Hz/15 Hz, 30 min) was applied to "Shenmen"(HT7) -"Tongli"(HT5) once a day for 3 consecutive days. The histopathological changes of myocardial tissue and levels of ischemia modified albumin (IMA) in serum were determined by HE staining and ELISA, respectively. The LC-MS/MS technique was used to characterize the metabolic profiling of the prefrontal cortex. The differentially expressed metabolites were screened by principal component analysis(PCA) and partial least squares-linear discriminant analysis (PLS-LDA), and subsequently Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) metabolic pathway enrichment analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Compared with the sham group, the myocardial fibers were disordered and fractured, and content of serum IMA was significantly increased in the model group (<0.01), which, however, were significantly decreased in the EA group (<0.01). With PCA and PLS-LDA, there were 18 differential metabolites between the model and sham groups. Forty-eight differential metabolites were emerged between the EA and model groups. Three metabolites associated to the sphingolipid metabolism were reversed by EA stimulation, as indicated by KEGG.

CONCLUSION

The molecular mechanism of EA against myocardial ischemia is partially mediated by regulating sphingolipid-related metabolites in the prefrontal cortex.