Electroacupuncture Promotes Proliferation of Amplifying Neural Progenitors and Preserves Quiescent Neural Progenitors from Apoptosis to Alleviate Depressive-Like and Anxiety-Like Behaviours

Liu Yang,Qiuqin Han,Jin Yu,Bin Li,Xiaocang Zhu,Qiong Liu,Gencheng Wu,Na Yue

doi:10.1155/2014/872568

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on depressive-like and anxiety-like behaviours and neural progenitors in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) in a chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) rat model of depression. After being exposed to a CUS procedure for 2 weeks, rats were subjected to EA treatment, which was performed on acupoints Du-20 (Bai-Hui) and GB-34 (Yang-Ling-Quan), once every other day for 15 consecutive days (including 8 treatments), with each treatment lasting for 30 min. The behavioural tests (i.e., forced swimming test, elevated plus-maze test, and open-field entries test) revealed that EA alleviated the depressive-like and anxiety-like behaviours of the stressed rats. Immunohistochemical results showed that proliferative cells (BrdU-positive) in the EA group were significantly larger in number compared with the Model group. Further, the results showed that EA significantly promoted the proliferation of amplifying neural progenitors (ANPs) and simultaneously inhibited the apoptosis of quiescent neural progenitors (QNPs). In a word, the mechanism underlying the antidepressant-like effects of EA is associated with enhancement of ANPs proliferation and preserving QNPs from apoptosis.

Highlights

Acupuncture, electroacupuncture (EA), is wellknown for its profound therapeutic value with fewer side effects in many diseases [1, 2]
We explored the effect of EA on the proliferation of the quiescent neural progenitors (QNPs) and amplifying neural progenitors (ANPs) subclasses in dentate gyrus (DG) of rat hippocampus
The results showed that chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) induced depressive-like and anxiety-like behaviours in rats and simultaneously exerted differential influence on the subclasses of neural progenitors (NPs); that is, it enhanced the apoptosis of QNPs slightly and impaired the proliferation of both ANPs and QNPs in DG of adult rodent hippocampus

Summary

Introduction

Acupuncture, electroacupuncture (EA), is wellknown for its profound therapeutic value with fewer side effects in many diseases [1, 2]. Two major subclasses of neural progenitors (NPs) have been characterized in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the adult hippocampus based on the expression of phenotypic marker proteins. The first class is called quiescent neural progenitors (QNPs), which has a radial glia-like morphology and carry stem cell properties, characterized by expression of glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) and a relatively low rate of proliferative activity [7,8,9,10,11,12]. The second class of NPs is considered the progeny of QNPs and named amplifying neural progenitors (ANPs). It is GFAP-negative and has a higher rate of mitotic activity [9, 10, 13, 14].

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion