Acupuncture Prevents the Impairment of Hippocampal LTP Through β1-AR in Vascular Dementia Rats

• Published in: Molecular neurobiology Vol. 55; no. 10; pp. 7677 - 7690
• Main Authors: Xiao, Ling-Yong, Wang, Xue-Rui, Yang, Jing-Wen, Ye, Yang, Zhu, Wen, Cao, Yan, Ma, Si-Ming, Liu, Cun-Zhi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acupuncture; Acupuncture Therapy; Adrenergic receptors; Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cell Biology; Cognitive ability; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Dementia, Vascular - physiopathology; Dementia, Vascular - therapy; Dentate gyrus; Dentate Gyrus - metabolism; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - pathology; Hippocampus - physiopathology; Long-Term Potentiation; Male; Memory; Neurobiology; Neurology; Neuroprotection; Neurosciences; Norepinephrine; Norepinephrine - metabolism; Rats, Wistar; Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha - metabolism; Receptors, Adrenergic, beta - metabolism; Rodents; Synapses; Synaptic plasticity; Vascular dementia; Norepinephrine; Vascular dementia; Acupuncture; Long-term potentiation; Synaptic plasticity; β-Adrenergic receptor
• DOI: 10.1007/s12035-018-0943-x
• ISSN: 0893-7648; 1559-1182

It is widely accepted that the synaptic dysfunction and synapse loss contribute to the cognitive deficits of vascular dementia (VD) patients. We have previously reported that acupuncture improved cognitive function in rats with VD. However, the mechanisms involved in acupuncture improving cognitive ability remain to be elucidated. The present study aims to investigate the pathways and molecules involved in the neuroprotective effect of acupuncture. We assessed the effects of acupuncture on hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP), the most prominent cellular model of memory formation. Acupuncture enhanced LTP and norepinephrine (NE) levels in the hippocampus. Inhibition of the β-adrenergic receptor (AR), but not the α-AR, was able to block the effects of acupuncture on hippocampal LTP. Furthermore, inhibition of β1-AR, not β2-AR, abolished the enhanced LTP induced by acupuncture. The expression analysis revealed a significant upregulation of β1-AR and unchanged β2-AR with acupuncture, which supported the above findings. Specifically, increased β1-ARs in the dentate gyrus were expressed on neurons exclusively. Taken together, the present data supports a beneficial role of acupuncture in synaptic plasticity challenged with VD. A likely mechanism is the increase of NE and activation of β1-AR in the hippocampus.