Effects of auricular electroacupuncture stimulation on memory and seizures in epileptic rats via BDNF/TrkB/AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway
Objective It is to investigate the effects of auricular electroacupuncture stimulation on memory,seizures of epileptic rats and their molecular mechanisms based on brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF)/proto-myosin-related ki-nase B(TrkB)/AMP-activated protein kinase(AMPK)/silent information regulator 1(SIRT1)signaling pathway.Meth-ods Thirty-six male SD rats were randomly divided into normal 4-week group,model 4-week group,auricular acupuncture 4-week group,normal 8-week group,model 8-week group,and auricular acupuncture 8-week group,with 6 rats in each group.Lithium-pilocarpine epilepsy models were established in the two model groups and two auricular acupuncture groups.24 hours after the the epilepsy models were established,the rats in the auricular acupuncture 4-week and auricular acu-puncture 8-week group were stimulated with electroacupuncture for 4 weeks and 8 weeks,respectively,and stimulated con-tinuously for 3 days per week.At the end of the intervention in each group,the spatial memory of the rats was measured by inhibitory avoidance test,the time of spontaneous seizures with 48 h of the epileptic rats was detected by electroencephalo-gram(EEG),the content of BDNF in hippocampus was detected by ELISA,and the protein expressions of TrkB,AMPK and SIRT1 in rat hippocampal tissue were detected by Western blot.Results The black box retention times of rats in the 4-week and 8-week model groups were significantly longer than those of the normal group of the corresponding time(all P＜0.05),spontaneous seizures attacked several times within 48 h,the contents of BDNF and the relative protein expressions of p-TrkB,p-AMPK,and SIRT1 in hippocampal tissues were all significantly lower than those of the normal group of the corresponding time(all P＜0.05);the black box retention times of rats in the 4-week and 8-week auricular acupuncture groups were significantly shorter than those of the model groups of the corresponding time(all P＜0.05),the times of spontaneous seizures within 48 h were significantly lower than those of the model group of the corresponding time(all P＜0.05),the contents of BDNF and the relative protein expressions of p-TrkB,p-AMPK,and SIRT1 in hippocampal tissues were significantly higher than those of the model group of the corresponding time(all P＜0.05)and the improvements of the above indexes in the auricular acupuncture 8-week group were all significantly better than those in the auricular acu-puncture 4-week group(all P＜0.05).Conclusion Auricular acupuncture stimulation can improve memory ability and re-duces seizures in epileptic rats in a time-dependent manner,and the mechanism may be related to regulating the BDNF/TrkB/AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway in hippocampal tissues.
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