Effect of manual acupuncture stimulation of "Baihui" (GV 20) and "Dazhui" (GV 14) on contents of 5-HT, dopamine and ACh and expression of 5-HT mRNA, DA mRNA and AChE mRNA in the hippocampus in methamphetamine addiction rats

Objective: To observe the effect of manual acupuncture stimulation on changes of hippocampal monoamine neurotransmitter levels and expression of 5-hydorxytryptamine (5-HT) mRNA, dopamine (DA) mRNA and acetylcholine esterase (AChE) mRNA in methamphetamine addiction rats, so as to explore its mechanism underlying improvement of drug addiction.

Methods: SD rats were randomly divided into normal control, model and manual acupuncture groups (n=10 in each group). Drug addiction model was established by i.p. of methamphetamine (5 mg/kg), once a day for 15 days. Manual acupuncture stimu- lation was applied to "Baihui" (GV 20) and "Dazhui" (GV 14) once daily for 10 days. The contents of hippocampal 5-HT, DA, acetylcholine (ACh), AChE were measured by ELISA. The expressive Ilieels of hippocampal 5-HT mRNA, DA mRNA and AChE mRNA were determined by fluorescence quantitative RT-POR.

Results: In comparison with the normal control group, the con- tents of 5-HT, DA, ACh and AChE and the expression levels of 5-HT mRNA, DA mRNA and AChE mRNA were significantly increased in the model group (P<0.01, P<0.05). After acupuncture intervention, the levels of the above-mentioned 7 indexes were uniformly and significantly down-regulated in the manual acupuncture group (P<0.01, P<0.05).

Conclusions: Manual acupuncture stimulation of GV 20 and GV 14 can adjust methamphetamine addiction-induced changes of some hippocampal monoa- mine neurotransmitters and expression levels of 5-HT, DA and AChE genes.