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Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by social behavior deficit in childhood without satisfactory medical intervention. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is a noninvasive technique derived from acupuncture and has been shown to have similar the...

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Autores principales: Wang, Xiaoxi, Ding, Rui, Song, Yayue, Wang, Juan, Zhang, Chen, Han, Songping, Han, Jisheng, Zhang, Rong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7787794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33456456
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/8832694
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author Wang, Xiaoxi
Ding, Rui
Song, Yayue
Wang, Juan
Zhang, Chen
Han, Songping
Han, Jisheng
Zhang, Rong
author_facet Wang, Xiaoxi
Ding, Rui
Song, Yayue
Wang, Juan
Zhang, Chen
Han, Songping
Han, Jisheng
Zhang, Rong
author_sort Wang, Xiaoxi
collection PubMed
description Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by social behavior deficit in childhood without satisfactory medical intervention. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is a noninvasive technique derived from acupuncture and has been shown to have similar therapeutic effects in many diseases. Valproic acid- (VPA-) induced ASD is a known model of ASD in rats. The therapeutic efficacy of TEAS was evaluated in the VPA model of ASD in the present study. The offspring of a VPA-treated rat received TEAS in the early life stage followed by a series of examinations conducted in their adolescence. The results show that following TEAS treatment in early life, the social and cognitive ability in adolescence of the offspring of a VPA rat were significantly improved. In addition, the abnormal pain threshold was significantly corrected. Additional studies demonstrated that the dendritic spine density of the primary sensory cortex was decreased with Golgi staining. Results of the transcriptomic study showed that expression of some transcription factors such as the neurotrophic factor were downregulated in the hypothalamus of the VPA model of ASD. The reduced gene expression was reversed following TEAS. These results suggest that TEAS in the early life stage may mitigate disorders of social and recognition ability and normalize the pain threshold of the ASD rat model. The mechanism involved may be related to improvement of synaptic plasticity.
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spelling pubmed-77877942021-01-14 Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism Wang, Xiaoxi Ding, Rui Song, Yayue Wang, Juan Zhang, Chen Han, Songping Han, Jisheng Zhang, Rong Neural Plast Research Article Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by social behavior deficit in childhood without satisfactory medical intervention. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is a noninvasive technique derived from acupuncture and has been shown to have similar therapeutic effects in many diseases. Valproic acid- (VPA-) induced ASD is a known model of ASD in rats. The therapeutic efficacy of TEAS was evaluated in the VPA model of ASD in the present study. The offspring of a VPA-treated rat received TEAS in the early life stage followed by a series of examinations conducted in their adolescence. The results show that following TEAS treatment in early life, the social and cognitive ability in adolescence of the offspring of a VPA rat were significantly improved. In addition, the abnormal pain threshold was significantly corrected. Additional studies demonstrated that the dendritic spine density of the primary sensory cortex was decreased with Golgi staining. Results of the transcriptomic study showed that expression of some transcription factors such as the neurotrophic factor were downregulated in the hypothalamus of the VPA model of ASD. The reduced gene expression was reversed following TEAS. These results suggest that TEAS in the early life stage may mitigate disorders of social and recognition ability and normalize the pain threshold of the ASD rat model. The mechanism involved may be related to improvement of synaptic plasticity. Hindawi 2020-12-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7787794/ /pubmed/33456456 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/8832694 Text en Copyright © 2020 Xiaoxi Wang et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Xiaoxi
Ding, Rui
Song, Yayue
Wang, Juan
Zhang, Chen
Han, Songping
Han, Jisheng
Zhang, Rong
Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
title Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
title_full Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
title_fullStr Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
title_full_unstemmed Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
title_short Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation in Early Life Changes Synaptic Plasticity and Improves Symptoms in a Valproic Acid-Induced Rat Model of Autism
title_sort transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation in early life changes synaptic plasticity and improves symptoms in a valproic acid-induced rat model of autism
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7787794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33456456
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/8832694
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