OBJECTIVETo probe into the mechanism of acupuncture for treatment of cerebro-cardiac syndrome.

METHODSThe rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a sham operation group, a cerebral bleeding group, an acupuncture group and an acupuncture control group. The acupuncture group were treated with acupuncture at "Neiguan" (PC 6), "Shuigou" (GV 26), "Renying" (ST 19), and the acupuncture control group with acupuncture at "Shenmen" (HT 7) and "Danzhong" (CV 17). The tissue in situ hybridization technique was used to detect dynamic changes of endothelin (ET) mRNA expression in both the central cardiovascular special regulative area and the myocardium, and imaging quantitative analysis on the positive response materials was carried out.

RESULTSThe experimental cerebral bleeding could rapidly induce abnormal expression of ET gene in the cerebral bleeding surrounding area, hypothalamus, brain stem, hippocampus and myocardium. Up-regulation of FT mRNA expression could be found at 6 h of cerebral bleeding, and it reached to the peak at 24 h, and slightly reduced at 72 h, still being higher than the normal level. At the same time, ET expression in the myocardium increased. Acupuncture could block the increase of FT gene expression induced by cerebral bleeding.

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture exerts protective action on injuries of neurons and myocardium induced by cerebral bleeding via blocking the increase of FT gene expression induced by cerebral bleeding.