Influence of Electric Acupuncture on Bcl-xl and Caspase-3 Expression After Cerebral Ischemia of Rats

to study the influence of electric acupuncture on factors about cerebral nerve cell apoptosis: B-cell lymphocytic lymphoma-xl gene (Bcl-xl) and aspartic acid proteolytic enzyme-3 including cysteine (Caspase-3) after cerebral ischemia of rats, and discuss the possible mechanism of treating cerebral ischemia and suppressing cell apoptosis with electric acupuncture. Method: 250 healthy and adult male SD rats were chosen as the objects of study, and they were randomly divided into sham-operation group, model group, electric acupuncture group, AG490 group, and AG490 electric acupuncture group. Each group was divided into 5 sub-groups according to time bucket. There were 25 groups in total. Each group included 10 rats. AG490 right ventricle injection was conducted for AG490 group and AG490 electric acupuncture group 20min before the operation. Baihui point and Dazhui point were chosen for electric acupuncture group and AG490 electric acupuncture for electric acupuncture treatment. The number of immune positive cells of cerebral ischemia nidi of rats Bcl-xl and Caspase-3 was observed. Results: sham-operation group has no significant change in each time bucket after the operation. After cerebral ischemia for 2h, Bcl-xl and Caspase- 3 expression of rats in each group rises, higher than the rats in the sham-operation group in the same time bucket. For Bcl-xl expression, the model group and the electric acupuncture group are most significant, while the expression of AG490+ electric acupuncture group is lower than that of electric acupuncture group (P<0.01). Caspase- 3 content has no difference for each intervention group. Bcl-xl expression of rats in each group after ischemia for 1d is basically same with the situation of rats in each group after ischemia for 2d. The electric acupuncture group presents continuous rising trend. Caspase- 3 expression of each intervention group continues to rise. The model group and AG490 group are in the high level (P < 0.01). AG490+ electric acupuncture group is lower than the model group (P < 0.05), but AG490+ electric acupuncture group has no difference with AG490 group (P>0.05). The electric acupuncture group is lower than the above three groups (P< 0.05). After cerebral ischemia for 3d, Bcl-xl expression of rats in each group starts to decline. High-level expression of electric acupuncture group can maintain for a long time, and the content is higher than that of model group (P < 0.05). The content of AG490 group and AG490+ electric acupuncture group is low (P < 0.01). The content of Caspase- 3 reaches the peak after cerebral ischemia for 3d. The content of AG490 group is highest (P < 0.05), and the content of electric acupuncture group is lowest (P < 0.01). The model group and AG490+ electric acupuncture group are between the two, and the difference of the two is not significant (P > 0.05). After cerebral ischemia for 7d-21d, Bcl-xl and Caspase-3 content of rats in each group continues to drop. After 21d, the differences of rats in each group are not significant (P > 0.05). Conclusion: electric acupuncture can effectively suppress cerebral nerve cell apoptosis after cerebral ischemia, enhance Bcl-xl expression in brain tissue and down regulate Caspase-3 content. It may protect the brain through activating JAK2/STAT5 signal channel.