Effects of electroacupuncture on the expression of Nestin in neural stem cell after focal cerebral ischemia in rats

Objective To study the influence of electroacupuncture on the expression of Nestin in neural stem cells after focal cerebral ischemia in rats and to explore the mechanism of electroacupuncture in treating ischemic brain injury. Methods The model of middle cerebral artery occlusion was made by using opening cranium hot coagulation in 72 rats, who were divided randomly into a model group and an electroacupuncture group. Electroacupuncture was applied on Dazhui and Baihui points in rats in electroacupuncture group, and immunohistochemistry method was used to observe the number of Nestin expression positive cells on the 3th, 7th, 14th and 21st days after ischemia. Results There were Nestin positive cells in the cortex, hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) and striatum at different time points after cerebral ischemia, and the number of Nestin positive cells in various brain regions were increased significantly on the 7th day (P0.05). It was also found that the number of Nestin positive cells in electroacupuncture group was significantly more than that in the model group at different time points (P0.05 or P0.01). Conclusion Electroacupuncture can increase the number of Nestin positive cells in some brain regions after focal cerebral ischemia, which might be one of the important mechanisms of electroacupuncture in treating ischemic brain injury.