Effect of Jin's 3-needling therapy on executive function and spatial learning and memory abilities of frontal lobe injury rats

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of Jin's 3-needling therapy on executive function and spatial learning and memory abilities and their mechanism in frontal lobe injury rats. Methods Thirty-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham-operated group, Jin's 3-needling group, model group and medoba treatment group (n=8). The rats in the sham-operated group only underwent craniotomy to remove the bone flap and no impact was performed on the frontal lobe; the frontal lobe injury models of model group, Jin's 3-needling group and medoba treatment group were established by eCCI-6.3 device; rats in the Jin's 3-needling group were treated with Jin's 3-needling therapy, and rats in the madopa treatment group were given 2 mL of madopa suspension by perfusion once daily. The behavior of rats in each group was evaluated by GO/NO GO task and Morris water maze test, and apoptosis of cells was detected by TUNEL, dopamine receptor D1 (DRD1) expression was determined by immunohistochemistry, and the content of dopamine in frontal tissues was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. Results The accuracy rate of GO/NO GO task in Jin's 3 needling group was significantly higher than that in madopa treatment group (P<0.05); and that in madopa treatment group was significantly higher than that in model group (P<0.05). On the 3rd and 4th d of place navigation test, the escape latency in the Jin's 3 needling group and madopa treatment group was significantly decreased as compared with that in the model group (P<0.05); the escape latency in the Jin's 3 needling group was significantly decreased as compared with that in the madopa treatment group (P< 0.05). In spatial probe test, the number of times of crossing the platform in the Jin's 3 needling group and madopa treatment group was significantly larger as compared with that in the model group (P<0.05). As compared with those in the model group, the number of apoptotic neurons in the frontal lobes was significantly larger, the content of dopamine in the frontal lobes and the DRD1 expression were significantly increased in the madopa treatment group and Jin's 3-needling group (P<0.05); the number of apoptotic neurons in the Jin's 3 needling group was significantly smaller as compared with that in the madopa treatment group (P<0.05); the content of dopamine in the frontal lobes and the DRD1 expression in the Jin's 3 needling group were significantly increased as compared with those in the madopa treatment group (P<0.05). Conclusion Jin's 3-needling therapy can effectively improve the executive function and spatial learning and memory abilities of frontal lobe damaged rats, and their mechanism may be related to decreased apoptosis of frontal tissue cells and increased dopamine content and increased DRD1 expression. Key words: Jin's 3-needling therapy; Frontal lobe damage; Executive function; Spatial learning and memory ability; Cell apoptosis; Dopamine; Dopamine receptor D1