Abstract
Growing evidence indicates that electroacupuncture (EA) has a definite effect on the treatment of peripheral nerve injury (PNI), but its mechanism is not completely clear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the regulation of a variety of biological processes, and EA may enhance PNI repair by regulating miRNAs. In this study, the rat sciatic nerve injury model was treated with EA for 4 weeks. Acupoints Huantiao (GB30) and Zusanli (ST36) were stimulated by EA 20 min once a day, 6 days a week for 4 weeks. We found that EA treatment downregulated the expression of miR-1b in the local injured nerve. In vitro experiments showed that overexpression of miR-1b inhibited the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in rat Schwann cell (SC) line, while BDNF knockdown inhibited the proliferation, migration, and promoted apoptosis of SCs. Subsequently, the rat model of sciatic nerve injury was treated by EA treatment and injection of agomir-1b or antagomir-1b. The nerve conduction velocity ratio (NCV), sciatic functional index (SFI), and S100 immunofluorescence staining were examined and showed that compared with the model group, NCV, SFI, proliferation of SC, and expression of BDNF in the injured nerves of rats treated with EA or EA + anti-miR-1b were elevated, while EA + miR-1b was reduced, indicating that EA promoted sciatic nerve function recovery and SC proliferation through downregulating miR-1b. To summarize, EA may promote the proliferation, migration of SC, and nerve repair after PNI by regulating miR-1b, which targets BDNF.
Highlights
Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) brings great pain and inconvenience for patients
After PNI, proliferation and migration of Schwann cell (SC) lead to axonal regeneration and secretion of various neurotrophic factors (NTFs), such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which are useful for maintaining injured neuron survival, promoting nerve fiber regeneration and new synapse formation (Dai et al, 2013)
After RSC96 was transfected with miR-1b MC or mimic, the mRNA and protein expression levels of BDNF were detected by PCR, Western blot, and immunofluorescence
Summary
Electroacupuncture (EA) treatment can effectively relieve neuropathic pain (Zhang et al, 2014; Wang et al, 2018), ameliorate functional indicators, and promote regeneration and anastomosis of the injured nerve within a short term (≤4 weeks) (Zhang et al, 2018). Recent researches suggested that miRNAs play an important role in PNI; they have attracted increasing interest in peripheral nerve regeneration field (Yu et al, 2015). After PNI, proliferation and migration of SCs lead to axonal regeneration and secretion of various neurotrophic factors (NTFs), such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which are useful for maintaining injured neuron survival, promoting nerve fiber regeneration and new synapse formation (Dai et al, 2013)
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