Electroacupuncture alleviates myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury by inhibiting hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus neurons projecting to the rostral ventrolateral medulla

• Published in: The European journal of neuroscience Vol. 60; no. 5; pp. 4861 - 4876
• Main Authors: Shu, Qi, Zhou, Jie, Zhang, Bin, Zhang, Fan, Zhou, Xiang, Wu, Yan, Chang, Huimin, Hu, Ling, Cai, Ronglin, Yu, Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: France Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2024
• Subjects: Acupuncture; Animal models; Coronary artery; Creatine; Creatine kinase; EKG; Electroacupuncture; electroacupuncture (EA); hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus; Hypothalamus; Immunofluorescence; Ischemia; Isoenzymes; Kinases; Medulla oblongata; Myocardial ischemia; myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury (MIRI); neural pathway; Neurons; Paraventricular nucleus; Reperfusion; rostral ventrolateral medulla; Troponin I; rostral ventrolateral medulla; electroacupuncture (EA); neural pathway; myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury (MIRI); hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus
• ISSN: 0953-816X; 1460-9568; 1460-9568
• DOI: 10.1111/ejn.16480

Accumulating evidence suggests that electroacupuncture (EA) has obvious therapeutic effects and unique advantages in alleviating myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury (MIRI), while the underlying neuromolecular mechanisms of EA intervention for MIRI have not been fully elucidated. The aim of the study is to investigate the role of the neural pathway of hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) neurons projecting to the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) in the alleviation of MIRI rats by EA preconditioning. MIRI models were established by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery for 30 min followed by reperfusion for 2 h. Electrocardiogram recording, chemogenetics, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, multichannel physiology recording and haematoxylin–eosin and immunofluorescence staining methods were conducted to demonstrate that the firing frequencies of neurons in the PVN and the expression of c‐Fos decreased by EA pretreatment. Meanwhile, EA preconditioning significantly reduced the levels of creatine kinase isoenzymes (CK‐MB), cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH). Virus tracing showed a projection connection between PVN and RVLM. The inhibition of the PVN‐RVLM neural pathway could replicate the protective effect of EA pretreatment on MIRI rats. However, the activation of the pathway weakened the effect of EA preconditioning. EA pretreatment alleviated MIRI by regulating PVN neurons projecting to RVLM. This work provides novel evidence of EA pretreatment for alleviating MIRI. Electroacupuncture pretreatment reduces arrhythmia and alleviates myocardial tissue injury in MIRI rats. The PVN‐RVLM neural pathway plays an important role in electroacupuncture preconditioning to alleviate MIRI.