The Effect of ‘Kidney-reinforcing and Du Meridian-regulating'acupuncture-moxibustion on mitofusin-1/2in hippocampal neurons of rat model with Alzheimer′s disease

Objective To observe the influence of acupuncture-moxibustion of‘Baihui'and‘Shenshu'on mitofusin-1/2in the hippocampus neurons of rat model with Alzheimer′s disease(AD). Methods AD rat model was established by injecting Aβ1-42into hippocampus.Wistar rats were divided randomly into normal group,model group,sham-operation group and acupuncture-moxibustion therapy group.The effect of acupuncture-moxibustion on the mitofusin-1/2 was observed by immunohistochemistry.One-way ANOVA was used for data analysis. Results Mfn1and Mfn2fusion protein in mitochondria of hippocampal neurons in rats in model group were significantly lower than those in rats in normal group and sham group(F=19.075, 16.180,12.141,6.287,1.082,9.610,1.502,2.289,P0.05),indicating a declined mitochondrial fusion during AD and an abnormal mitochondrial dynamics.However,after the acupuncture treatment of‘kidney tune Do',the levels of Mfn1and Mfn2significantly increased and the mitochondrial dynamics was greatly improved compared with rats in model group,the differences were statistically significant(F=27.468, 19.464,17.459,8.890,P0.05,P0.05or P0.01). Conclusions Acupuncture-moxibustion can prevent alzheimer′s disease by up-regulating the level of mitofusin-1/2.