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. 2015 Apr 28:15:133.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-015-0656-x.

Acupuncture attenuates cognitive deficits and increases pyramidal neuron number in hippocampal CA1 area of vascular dementia rats

Fang Li  1   2 , Chao-Qun Yan  3   4 , Li-Ting Lin  5   6 , Hui Li  7   8 , Xiang-Hong Zeng  9   10 , Yi Liu  11   12 , Si-Qi Du  13 , Wen Zhu  14 , Cun-Zhi Liu  15
Affiliations

Acupuncture attenuates cognitive deficits and increases pyramidal neuron number in hippocampal CA1 area of vascular dementia rats

Fang Li et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: Decreased cognition is recognized as one of the most severe and consistent behavioral impairments in dementia. Experimental studies have reported that acupuncture may improve cognitive deficits, relieve vascular dementia (VD) symptoms, and increase cerebral perfusion and electrical activity.

Methods: Multi-infarction dementia was modeled in rats with 3% microemboli saline suspension. Two weeks after acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36), all rats were subjected to a hidden platform trial to test their 3-day spatial memory using the Morris water maze test. To estimate the numbers of pyramidal neuron, astrocytes, and synaptic boutons in hippocampal CA1 area, we adopted an unbiased stereology method to accurately sample and measure the size of cells.

Results: We found that acupuncture at ST36 significantly decreased the escape latency of VD rats. In addition, acupuncture significantly increased the pyramidal neuron number in hippocampal CA1 area (P < 0.05) and tended to decrease the number of astrocytes (P = 0.063). However, there was no significant change in the synaptic bouton number of hippocampal CA1 area in any of the groups (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that acupuncture may improve cognitive deficits and increase pyramidal neuron number of hippocampal CA1 area in VD rats.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The detailed location of acupoints in this study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Performance in the MWM test of each group over 3 days. (A) Total escape latency of each group over 3 days. (B) Total swimming speed of each group over 3 days.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Unbiased stereological results for the number of pyramidal neurons, astrocytes, and synaptic boutons in hippocampal CA1 area. (A) Representative sections of Nissl staining for pyramidal neurons, GFAP immunostaining for astrocytes, and SYN immunostaining for SYN-positive synaptic boutons (For pyramidal neurons and astrocytes, above: 4 × magnification, scale bar = 200 μm; Below: 40 × magnification, scale bar =20 μm. For SYN-positive synaptic boutons, above: 5 × magnification, scale bar = 500 μm; Below: 100 × magnification, scale bar =20 μm.). (B–D) Changes in the number of pyramidal neurons, astrocytes, and synaptic boutons in each group.
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