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Medullary ventrolateral nitric oxide mediates the cardiac effect of electroacupuncture at “Neiguan” acupoint on acute myocardial ischemia in rats

He Ruirong

Department of Physiology, Institute of Basic Medicine, Hebei Medical University. Shijiazhuang 050017, China

Abstract

Experiments were performed on male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats anesthetized with a mixture of urethane and chloralose. A rat model of acute myocardial ischemia (AMI) was made by ligation of the left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery (LAD).After the LAD ligation, the ischemia area of the left ventricular wall became somewhat pale immediately. Under a light microscope, the pathological examination revealed that all the cells were swollen and in red color when the cardiac section was stained with hematoxylin basic fuchsin picric acid (HBFP), which indicated a typical change in the myocardial ischemia. In the AMI model, it was found that cardiac functions were markedly attenuated, such as decreases in the heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), left ventricular and total area of cardiac force loop (L0), and an increase in the left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP). In such AMI rats,application of electroacupuncture (EA) at "Neiguan" acupoints (Pe 6) for 20 min could obviously improve the above-mentioned cardiac functions. After microinjection of nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA), an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), was made into the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM), the curative effect of EA on myocardial ischemia was reduced significantly or abolished, while after microinjection of normal saline of the same volume was made into the RVLM, the improving effect of EA remained. These results suggest that the effect of EA on myocardial ischemia is possibly mediated by the nitric oxide (NO) in the RVLM.

Key words: Acupuncture;Acute myocardial ischemia;Cardiac function;Nitric oxide;Rostral ventrolateral medulla

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Citing This Article：

He Ruirong. Medullary ventrolateral nitric oxide mediates the cardiac effect of electroacupuncture at “Neiguan” acupoint on acute myocardial ischemia in rats. Acta Physiol Sin 2004; 56 (4): (in Chinese with English abstract).