Acupuncture inhibits Notch1 and Hes1 protein expression in the basal ganglia of rats with cerebral hemorrhage

摘要

Notch pathway activation maintains neural stem cells in a proliferating state and increases nerve repair capacity. To date, studies have rarely focused on changes or damage to signal transduc-tion pathways during cerebral hemorrhage. Here, we examined the effect of acupuncture in a rat model of cerebral hemorrhage. We examined four groups: in the control group, rats received no treatment. In the model group, cerebral hemorrhage models were established by infusing non-hep-arinized blood into the brain. In the acupuncture group, modeled rats hadBaihui (DU20) and Qubin(GB7) acupoints treated once a day for 30 minutes. In the DAPT group, modeled rats had 0.15 µg/mL DAPT solution (10 mL) infused into the brain. Immunohistochemistry and western blot results showed that acupuncture effectively inhibits Notch1 and Hes1 protein expression in rat basal ganglia. These inhibitory effects were identical to DAPT, a Notch signaling pathway inhibitor. Our results suggest that acupuncture has a neuroprotective effect on cerebral hemorrhage by in-hibiting Notch-Hes signaling pathway transduction in rat basal ganglia after cerebral hemorrhage. Key Words:nerve regeneration; acupuncture; cerebral hemorrhage; immunohistochemistry; western blot assay; Notch1; Hes1; rats; DAPT; neural stem cells; NSFC grant; neural regeneration