| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 針灸研究所 === 96 === Acupuncture has been used for epilepsy treatment for a long period of time in China. However, to our knowledge, the efficacy of acupuncture for preventing the development of epileptic focus formation is not yet elucidated until now. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of acupuncture on the development of epileptic focus formation. We establish a chronic epileptic model by using intraperitoneal administration of kainic acid (12 mg/kg, KA) in Spragrue-Dawley (SD) rats for 6 weeks. The rats were randomly divided into groups in which they receive the manual acupuncture (MA), 2 Hz electroacupuncture (EA), 100 Hz EA on Baihui acupoint (GV20) and Fengfu acupoint (GV16), respectively, one week after KA administration. The rats were sacrificed 6 weeks after KA administration and the brain tissue was removed for section. The Timm’s staining was done for mossy fiber sprouting, NeuN staining for neuron, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) staining for astrogliosis. The results indicated that MA, 2 Hz EA and 100 Hz EA reduced optical density difference of Timm’s staining of hippocampal dentate gyrus; 2 Hz EA and 100 Hz EA reduced NeuN immnuoreactive cells in the CA1 regions of hippocampus; MA and 100 Hz EA reduced GFAP immunoreactive cells in the hilus region of hippocamous, and 2 Hz EA and 100 Hz EA reduced GFAP immunoreactive cells in the striatum oriens and stratum radiate regions of hippocampus.
In conclusion, our results indicated that MA, 2 Hz EA and 100 Hz EA at GV20 and GV16 for 5 weeks can reduce mossy fiber sprouting and also can reduce astrogliosis 6 weeks after KA administration in SD rats, suggesting that MA, 2 Hz EA and 100 Hz EA may prevent the development of epileptic focus formation, i.e. anti-epileptogenesis. In addition, 2 Hz EA may reduce neuron loss of hippocampus, whether or not 2 Hz may produce a greater effect in protection of neuron, further study is needed.
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