Acupuncture Improves White Matter Perfusion and Integrity in Rat Model of Vascular Dementia: An MRI-Based Imaging Study.

Si-Ming Ma,Xin-Tong Su,Jing-Wen Yang,Lu-Lu Lin,Lu Wang,Jin Huang,Cun-Zhi Liu,Jia-Kai Shao,Na-Na Yang

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2020.582904

Abstract

White matter lesions induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion are associated with cognitive impairment in vascular dementia (VaD). Previous studies have shown that acupuncture can ameliorate the cognitive deficits of individuals with VaD. However, the neuroimaging mechanisms of acupuncture on white matter perfusion and integrity remain elusive. In this study, the VaD model was induced by bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion (BCCAO) in rats. Novel object recognition task and Morris water maze were performed to evaluate short-term memory and spatial learning and memory. Arterial spin labeling and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were used to measure the cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the white matter integrity. Pathological examinations detected the myelin loss and concomitant neuroinflammation. The results demonstrate that BCCAO rats with reduced CBF exhibited worse performance and altered DTI parameters, including decreased fractional anisotropy, increased radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity in white matter regions. Acupuncture ameliorated cognitive impairment, increased CBF, and protected the myelin sheath integrity but not the axons of BCCAO rats. These protective effects of acupuncture on white matter were significantly correlated with improved CBF. Pathological examination confirmed that the loss of myelin basic protein and microglial accumulation associated IL-1β and IL-6 production were attenuated by acupuncture treatment. Our findings suggest that acupuncture protects cognitive function of BCCAO rats by improving white matter perfusion and integrity.

Highlights

Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease (Gorelick et al, 2011)
The rats were randomized into five groups by a digital table (Figure 1A): sham-operated rats (SHAM, n = 8), rats subjected to bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion (BCCAO) (BCCAO, n = 8), SHAM rats treated with acupuncture (SHAM + ACU, n = 8), BCCAO rats treated with acupuncture (BCCAO + ACU, n = 8), and BCCAO rats treated with non-acupoint acupuncture (BCCAO + NON-ACU, n = 8)
The preference for the novel object was increased to 67 ± 2% compared with BCCAO rats (p = 0.021), suggesting that the short-term memory is restored

Summary

Introduction

Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease (Gorelick et al, 2011). Cerebral hypoxia-ischemia induced by CCH is sufficient to trigger white matter inflammation and oxidative stress (Dong et al, 2011; Miyamoto et al, 2013), which, in turn, impact the regulation of the cerebral blood supply (Faraci, 2011; Iadecola, 2013). Such an imbalance of CBF regulation would aggravate white matter injury and contribute to the loss of working memory or executive dysfunction (Calabrese et al, 2016; Du et al, 2017)

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Results

Conclusion