Effect of electroacupuncture on AC-cAMP-PKA signal transduction pathway in hippocampus of depression rats

Objective To explore the effect of electroacupuncture on AC-cAMPPKA signal transduction pathway in hippocampus of depression rats.Methods Thirty-two adult Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into control,model,medicine and electroacupuncture groups,8 rats in each group.Rats in control group was not given any other stimulation,and rats in model group were made depression by the chronic mild stress.Rats in medicine group were treated with fluoxetine hydrochloride for 3 weeks.In the electroacupuncture group,rats were given electroacupuncture stimulation for fifteen minutes,once per day for 3 week,following stress stimulation.At the 22th day,rats were killed by neckdislocating way,the hippocampus were taken and reserved in-70℃ for detecting. Adenylate cyclase(AC)was detected by non-labeled substrate;cyclic adenosine monophosphate(cAMP)and protein kinase A(PKA) were detected by RIA.Results AC activity,cAMP quantity and PKA activity in hippocampus of model group were decreased significantly than those of control group(P0.01).AC activity,cAMP quantity and PKA activity in hippocampus of medicine group rats and the electroacupuncture group rats were increased significantly than those of the model group(P0.01).Conclusions The AC-cAMP-PKA signal transduction pathway in hippocampus of depression rats is down-regulated,and electroacupuncture could up-regulate it to resist depression.