| Objective: To investigate whether and how electroacupuncture (EA) affects the expression of miR132 and p250GAP protein in the hippocampal neurons of rats following cerebral ischemia. Methods: Ninety Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into five groups: sham-operated control group, model group, EA group, EA combined with intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of PKA blocker H89 (EA+H89) group and EA combined with ICV injection of normal saline (NS) (EA+NS) group. Cerebral ischemia was induced by permanent, bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2-vessel occlusion, 2VO), and EA was delivered the day after the operation at Baihui (GV20) and Dazhui (GV14) acupoints. Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blotting were respectively employed to detect the changes of miR132 and p250GAP protein in the hippocampus on the day 7, 14 or 21 after the EA treatment. Results: On the day 7, 14 and 21, the expression levels of miR132 were significantly decreased and the p250GAP protein were significantly increased in the model group as compared with the control group (P<0.05), while those of miR132 were significantly higher and those of p250GAP protein were significantly lower in the EA group than in the model group (P<0.05). In the EA+H89 group, protective effects of EA were weakened, whereas in the EA+NS group they were not affected. Among the 3 time points in each group, the expression of miR132 in the EA+NS groups was significantly higher on the day 14 than that on the day 7 (P<0.05), but that was significantly lower on the day 21 than that on the day 14 (P<0.05). No statistically significant difference was found among the other groups at each time point. Conclusion: EA could promote the increase of miR132 and inhibit the decrease of p250GAP protein in the hippocampus of cerebral ischemia rats, and these effects could be inhibited by H89, suggesting that PKA/CREB signaling pathway might be activated in effects of EA. |
