The Effect of Electroacupuncture versus Manual Acupuncture through the Expression of TrkB/NF-κB in the Subgranular Zone of the Dentate Gyrus of Telomerase-Deficient Mice.

Our previous study showed that the acupuncture stimulation on the acupoint (ST-36) could activate the brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) signaling pathways in telomerase-deficient mice. Recently, we set out to investigate whether the manual acupuncture (MA) or electroacupuncture (EA) displays a therapeutic advantage on age-related deterioration of learning and memory. Both telomerase-deficient mice (Terc-/- group, n = 24) and wild-type mice (WT group, n = 24) were randomly assigned to 3 subgroups (CON, controls with no treatment; MA, mice receiving manual acupuncture; EA, mice receiving electric acupuncture). The mice were subjected to behavior test, and EA/MA were applied at bilateral acupoints (ST36) 30 min daily for 7 successive days. The brain tissues were collected after the last Morris water maze (MWM) test and were subjected to the immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. The MWM test showed that EA can significantly increase the time in target quadrant (P ≤ 0.01) and frequency of locating platform for Terc-/- mice (P ≤ 0.05), while nothing changed in WT mice. Furthermore, western blotting and immunohistochemistry suggested that EA could also specifically increase the expression of TrkB and NF-κB in Terc-/- mice but not in wild-type mice (P ≤ 0.05). Meanwhile, the expression level and ratio of ERK/p-ERK did not exhibit significant changes in each subgroup. These results indicated that, compared with MA, the application of EA could specifically ameliorate the spatial learning and memory capability for telomerase-deficient mice through the activation of TrkB and NF-κB.