Objective To discuss the effects of the"twelve needles for hands and feet"acupuncture on the brain response mechanism and acupoint specificity in hemiplegic patients after ischemic stroke using fMRI.Methods Totally 43 inpatients from Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine from December 2018 to March 2023 were included.The included patients were randomly divided into a true acupoint group of 23 cases and a fake acupoint group of 20 cases using the random number table method for clinical scale evaluation and magnetic resonance scanning.The true acupoint group received"twelve needles for hands and feet"acupuncture;the fake acupoint group was treated with acupuncture by opening 1 inch next to the meridian point,once a day,for consecutive 10 d.Intervention completed,excluding subjects who fell out during the intervention process,had unsatisfactory MRI data quality and had incomplete clinical scales,and conducting data processing and analysis.Bilateral anterior central gyrus(PreCG),amygdala(AMYG),caudate nucleus(CAU),putamen lenticularis(PUT),pallidus lenticularis(PAL)and thalamus(THA)were selected as regions of interest(ROI),and the changes in Granger causality(GC)and differences in scale scores between the two groups before and after treatment were compared.Results After intervention in the true acupoint group,the GC of CAU.R → PreCG.R,AMYG.R → PAL.R was stronger than before intervention,and the GC of THA.L→PAL.L,AMYG.R→THA.R in the true acupoint group was weaker than before intervention(P<0.05);after intervention with fake acupoints,the GC of AMYG.R→PUT.L in the false acupoint group was stronger than before intervention,and the GC of THA.L→PreCG.R,AMYG.L→CAU.L was weaker than before intervention(P<0.05);the GC of THA.R→PAL.L before intervention was stronger than false acupoint group,the GC of CAU.L→PreCG.R,PUT.L→PreCG.R before intervention was weaker than fake acupoint group(P<0.05);the GC of CAU.R→PreCG.R,THA.L→PreCG.R,AMYG.R→CAU.L,THA.L→PAL.R,AMYG.L→THA.L after intervention in the true acupoint group was stronger than the false acupoint group,and the GC of AMYG.R→AMYG.L after intervention in the true acupoint group was weaker than the fake acupoint group(P<0.05).Conclusion"Twelve needles for hands and feet"acupuncture can stimulate preferential compensation of the right motor circuit,bilateral basal ganglia remodeling,and balance regulation of excitatory inhibitory effects on the thalamus in patients with radiation-induced coronary stroke,thereby improving the degree of motor dysfunction and neurological deficits;acupuncture at acupoints stimulates brain activity more than at non-acupoints,indicating acupoint specificity.

Objective To discuss the effects of the"twelve needles for hands and feet"acupuncture on the brain response mechanism and acupoint specificity in hemiplegic patients after ischemic stroke using fMRI.Methods Totally 43 inpatients from Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine from December 2018 to March 2023 were included.The included patients were randomly divided into a true acupoint group of 23 cases and a fake acupoint group of 20 cases using the random number table method for clinical scale evaluation and magnetic resonance scanning.The true acupoint group received"twelve needles for hands and feet"acupuncture;the fake acupoint group was treated with acupuncture by opening 1 inch next to the meridian point,once a day,for consecutive 10 d.Intervention completed,excluding subjects who fell out during the intervention process,had unsatisfactory MRI data quality and had incomplete clinical scales,and conducting data processing and analysis.Bilateral anterior central gyrus(PreCG),amygdala(AMYG),caudate nucleus(CAU),putamen lenticularis(PUT),pallidus lenticularis(PAL)and thalamus(THA)were selected as regions of interest(ROI),and the changes in Granger causality(GC)and differences in scale scores between the two groups before and after treatment were compared.Results After intervention in the true acupoint group,the GC of CAU.R → PreCG.R,AMYG.R → PAL.R was stronger than before intervention,and the GC of THA.L→PAL.L,AMYG.R→THA.R in the true acupoint group was weaker than before intervention(P<0.05);after intervention with fake acupoints,the GC of AMYG.R→PUT.L in the false acupoint group was stronger than before intervention,and the GC of THA.L→PreCG.R,AMYG.L→CAU.L was weaker than before intervention(P<0.05);the GC of THA.R→PAL.L before intervention was stronger than false acupoint group,the GC of CAU.L→PreCG.R,PUT.L→PreCG.R before intervention was weaker than fake acupoint group(P<0.05);the GC of CAU.R→PreCG.R,THA.L→PreCG.R,AMYG.R→CAU.L,THA.L→PAL.R,AMYG.L→THA.L after intervention in the true acupoint group was stronger than the false acupoint group,and the GC of AMYG.R→AMYG.L after intervention in the true acupoint group was weaker than the fake acupoint group(P<0.05).Conclusion"Twelve needles for hands and feet"acupuncture can stimulate preferential compensation of the right motor circuit,bilateral basal ganglia remodeling,and balance regulation of excitatory inhibitory effects on the thalamus in patients with radiation-induced coronary stroke,thereby improving the degree of motor dysfunction and neurological deficits;acupuncture at acupoints stimulates brain activity more than at non-acupoints,indicating acupoint specificity.

Aging poses a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death in the aged population. However, the cell type-specific changes underlying cardiac aging are far from being clear. Here, we performed single-nucleus RNA-sequencing analysis of left ventricles from young and aged cynomolgus monkeys to define cell composition changes and transcriptomic alterations across different cell types associated with age. We found that aged cardiomyocytes underwent a dramatic loss in cell numbers and profound fluctuations in transcriptional profiles. Via transcription regulatory network analysis, we identified FOXP1, a core transcription factor in organ development, as a key downregulated factor in aged cardiomyocytes, concomitant with the dysregulation of FOXP1 target genes associated with heart function and cardiac diseases. Consistently, the deficiency of FOXP1 led to hypertrophic and senescent phenotypes in human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Altogether, our findings depict the cellular and molecular landscape of ventricular aging at the single-cell resolution, and identify drivers for primate cardiac aging and potential targets for intervention against cardiac aging and associated diseases.
Aged ; Animals ; Humans ; Aging/genetics* ; Forkhead Transcription Factors/metabolism* ; Myocytes, Cardiac/metabolism* ; Primates/metabolism* ; Repressor Proteins/metabolism* ; Transcriptome ; Macaca fascicularis/metabolism*