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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Hypertension
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1358426

The Central Mechanisms of Electroacupuncture at LR3 in the Treatment of Spontaneous Hypertension: a PET and mRNA Transcriptome Study

Provisionally accepted
Chong Peng Chong Peng 1Kejie He Kejie He 2Yumei Wang Yumei Wang 3Xinsheng Lai Xinsheng Lai 1Jing Li Jing Li 1*
  • 1 Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 3 Shenzhen Bao'an Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To reveal the efficacy and potential mechanisms of electroacupuncture(EA) in treating hypertension.Methods: Male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were randomly assigned to the SHR group, EA group, and Sham-EA group, with Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) as the normal control group. SHRs in the EA group received electroacupuncture at the bilateral Taichong (LR3) acupoints for 7 consecutive days. Evaluation of systolic blood pressure(SBP), diastolic blood pressure(DBP), mean arterial pressure(MAP), and heart rate(HR) was conducted. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) was employed to explore the active brain regions associated with acupuncture-induced blood pressure reduction. Furthermore, mRNA expression profiling was analyzed in the active brain regions to identify differentially expressed genes, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to validate the mRNA expression of differentially expressed genes in the active brain region.Results: EA reduced elevated SBP, DBP, MAP and HR in SHR. PET-CT revealed that EA decreased glucose metabolism in the hypothalamus. Genomic analysis suggested that, compared to the SHR group, the differentially expressed genes in the hypothalamus of the EA group included Nr4a1, Sirt1, Trh, GPR88, Cck, and Th. EA downregulated the mRNA expression of Th, Trh, Gpr88, and Nr4a1, while upregulating the expression of Sirt1 and Cck at the mRNA level.Conclusion: EA may exert a unique antihypertensive effect in the hypothalamus of SHR, involving the modulation of sympathetic nerve activity, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress response.

    Keywords: Spontaneously hypertensive rat, Hypertension, Electroacupuncture, PET-CT, mRNA transcriptome

    Received: 21 Dec 2023; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Peng, He, Wang, Lai and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jing Li, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.