Objective: To study the bio-molecule basis of correlativity between Heart Meridian and hypothalamus from gene differential expression.
Methods: Twenty-eight healthy Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into 4 groups randomly: normal control, model, Heart Meridian-electroacupuncture (EA) and Lung Meridian-EA groups, with 7 cases in each. Acute myocardial ischemia (AMI) model was duplicated by occlusion of the left anterior descending branch (LAD) of the coronary artery under anesthesia (3% Nemb, 40 mg/kg). EA (1.1 mA, 2 Hz, duration of waves 300 micros) was applied to bilateral "Shenmen" (HT 7)-"Tongli" (HT 5, Heart Meridian), "Taiyuan" (LU 9)-"Lieque" (LU 7, Lung Meridian) separately for 20 min, once daily for 3 days. Then, hypothalamus tissue was taken for differentially expressed gene profiling analysis (Affymetrix GeneChip Rat Genome U 230 Affymetrix).
Results: Compared with model group, among the differentially expressed genes above 2 times in Heart-Meridian-EA group and Lung-Meridian-EA group, 190 and 57 were up-regulated, 34 and 26 down-regulated separately. Compared with Lung-Meridian-EA group, among the 175 differentially expressed genes above 2 times in hypothalamus tissues of Heart-Meridian-EA group, 147 were up-regulated and 28 down-regulated.
Conclusion: In comparison with EA of Lung Meridian, a different gene expression profile of hypothalamus tissue is involved in the effect of EA of Heart-Meridian on acute myocardial ischemia.