CAJ | 학술논문

The clinical effect of electroacupuncture on depression is widely recognized. However, the signal transduction pathways and target proteins involved remain unclear. In the present study, rat models of chronic restraint stress were used to explore the mechanism by which electroacupuncture alleviates depression. Rats were randomly divided into control, model, and electroacupuncture groups. Chronic restraint stress was induced in the model and elec-troacupuncture groups by restraining rats for 28 days. In the electroacupuncture group, electroacupuncture pretreatment atBaihui (GV20) andYintang (GV29) acupoints was per-formed daily (1 mA, 2 Hz, discontinuous wave, 20 minutes) prior to restraint for 28 days. Open ifeld tests and body weight measurements were carried out to evaluate the depressive symptoms at speciifc time points. On day 28, the crossing number, rearing number, and body weights of the model group were signiifcantly lower than those in the control group. Behavior test results indicated that rat models of depressive-like symptoms were successfully established by chronic restraint stress combined with solitary raising. On day 28, an isobaric tag for a relative and abso-lute quantitation-based quantitative proteomic approach was performed to identify differentially expressed proteins in hippocampal samples obtained from the model and electroacupuncture groups. The potential function of these differential proteins was predicted through the use of the Cluster of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COG) database. Twenty-seven differential pro-teins (uncharacteristic proteins expected) were selected from the model and electroacupuncture groups. In addition to unknown protein functions, COG are mainly concentrated in general prediction function, mechanism of signal transduction, amino acid transport and metabolism groups. This suggests that electroacupuncture improved depressive-like symptoms by regulating differential proteins, and most of these related proteins exist in nerve cells.