The influence of electro-acupuncture on neural plasticity in acute cerebral infarction.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electro-acupuncture (EA) on dendritic spine and ephrin-A5 and to investigate the action of EA on neural plasticity after acute cerebral ischemic infarction.
METHODS: Focal acute cerebral ischemia model was established by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) with electrocoagulation contralateral method. Ninety male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham operation (SO) group, MCAO group and EA treatment (ET) group. Golgi dying, double immunofluorescence method and RT-PCR were used to detect dendritic spine density, expression patterns of ephrin-A5 and the effect of EA on them at the end of the first, second and fourth week after ischemia.
RESULTS: The dendritic spine density in MCAO group significantly decreased after ischemia (p<0.01). The dendritic spine density was raised in ET group in the corresponding time period (p<0.01) and among the ET groups. It was higher at the end of the fourth week than before (p<0.05). The signal of ephrin-A5 was detected mainly in neuron cytoplasm, and the mRNA expression in MCAO group and ET group increased compared to that in SO group (p<0.01). The mRNA expression in ET group at the first week was much higher than that in MCAO group (p<0.01). In ET groups, the mRNA expression of ephrin-A5 was down-regulated along with the time going (p<0.01).
CONCLUSION: It is possibly the regulation of the ephrin-A5 expression by which EA treatment improves the neural plasticity at the peri-infarct cerebral cortex in acute cerebral ischemia rat. There may be a time window in EA treatment for acute cerebral ischemia.