2014•Advanced materials researchOpen access
2Hz-Electroacupuncture Attenuates Conditioned Cue-Evoked Heroin-Seeking Behavior and Increase CB2-Rs Expression in Relapse-Relevant Brain Regions in Heroin-Addicted Rats
Lin Chen, Miao Bao, Kai Yue, Qin Ru, Xiang Tian, Qi Xiong, Lu Liu, Chao Ying Li
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Abstract
In order to investigate the influence of electroacupuncture on heroin seeking behavior and the expression of CB2-Rs in the relapse-relevant brain regions, heroin self-administration rat model which represents the heroin relapse behaviors was developed with progressive fixed ratio program. The model rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: control group, heroin-addicted group and 2Hz electroacupuncture group (stimulating on acupoints zusanli and sanyinjiao). The expression of CB2-Rs in the relapse-relevant brain regions were assessed with immunohistochemistry technologies. The reinstatement of heroin seeking behavior induced by conditioned cue priming showed that compared with the heroin-addicted group, active pokes in the 2Hz electroacupuncture group decreased significantly (p<0.05). Compared with the control group, the expression of CB2-Rs in prefrontal cortex (PFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) was significantly decreased (p<0.05) in heroin-addicted group and increaseed significantly recover (p<0.05) in the 2Hz electroacupuncture group. Our present results showed that 2Hz-electroacupuncture could attenuate the conditioned cue-evoked heroin-seeking behavior and the inhibitory effect was mediated partially by the increase CB2-Rs expression in relapse-relevant brain regions in heroin-addicted rats.