Electroacupuncture at Dazhui (GV14) and Mingmen (GV4) protects against spinal cord injury: the role of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Electroacupuncture at Dazhui (GV14) and Mingmen (GV4) on the Governor Vessel has been shown to exhibit curative effects on spinal cord injury; however, the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we established rat models of spinal cord injury using a modified Allen's weight-drop method. Ninety-nine male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three equal groups: sham (only laminectomy), SCI (induction of spinal cord injury at T(10)), and EA (induction of spinal cord injury at T(10) and electroacupuncture intervention at GV14 and GV4 for 20 minutes once a day). Rats in the SCI and EA groups were further randomly divided into the following subgroups: 1-day (n = 11), 7-day (n = 11), and 14-day (n = 11). At 1, 7, and 14 days after electroacupuncture treatment, the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan locomotor rating scale showed obvious improvement in rat hind limb locomotor function, hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that the histological change of injured spinal cord tissue was obviously alleviated, and immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis showed that Wnt1, Wnt3a, β-catenin immunoreactivity and protein expression in the injured spinal cord tissue were greatly increased compared with the sham and SCI groups. These findings suggest that electroacupuncture at GV14 and GV4 upregulates Wnt1, Wnt3a, and β-catenin expression in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, exhibiting neuroprotective effects against spinal cord injury.