Acupuncture Affects Behavior
Oxytocin (OXT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) are two
closely related neuropeptides and implicated in the regulation of mammalian
social behaviors. Prior clinical study in our laboratory suggested that
electro-acupuncture (EA) alleviated social impairment in autistic children
accompanied by changes of peripheral levels of OXT and AVP. However, it remains
unclear whether EA stimulation had an impact on central OXT and AVP levels. In
the present study, rats were subjected to a single session of EA (sEA) or
repeated sessions of EA (rEA). Following the stimulation, mRNA levels and
peptide levels of OXT/AVP systems were determined. The results showed that sEA
led to region-specific up-regulation of OXT and AVP mRNA levels in the
hypothalamus where the peptides were produced, without affecting the content of
OXT and AVP in hypothalamus and peripheral blood. The rEA of 5 sessions in
9days was given to the low socially interacting (LSI) rats. LSI rats underwent
rEA showed significant improvement of social behavior characterized by spending
more time investigating the strange rats in three-chamber sociability test. The
improved sociability was accompanied by an up-regulation of mRNA and the
peptide levels of OXT or AVP in SON of hypothalamus as well as a significant
increase of serum level of AVP. It is concluded that activation of OXT/AVP
systems may be associated with the pro-social effect caused by EA stimulation
No comments:
Post a Comment