Pinching Spine:A Potential Treatment for Depression

【摘要】 Objective:To investigate whether pinching spine(PS,i.e.捏脊,a traditional Chinese manipulative therapy) is beneficial to ameliorating the depressive state(including behavioral deficit,retardative weight gain and decreased sucrose consumption) in a rat model of depression induced by chronic unpredictable stress(CUS)and to explore the candidate mechanism of action.Methods:PS was performed on rats’ spine once daily for 1week after exposure to CUS.The open-field test,body weight measuring,and sucrose intake test were applied on different dates:before stress(dO),at the end of stress(d21) and after PS treatment(d28),respectively.Then the rats’ hippocampuses were performed genome-wide microarray analysis,and the expression levels of several genes were evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction(PCR).Results:Exposure to CUS resulted in decreases of behavioral activity and sucrose consumption,which were reversed significantly after PS treatment.The expression of several genes relevant to energy metabolism,anti-oxidation,and olfactory receptor,etc.,were down-regulated,while the expression of those relevant to hemostasis,immunity-inflammation,and restriction of activities and ingestion,etc.,were up-regulated in hippocampuses of rats exposed to CUS.PS treatment significantly inverted these changes.Furthermore,increase or decrease in gene expression evaluated by realtime PCR was concordant with up-regulated or down-regulated expression evaluated by microarray analysis.Conclusion:PS showed a potential antidepressant-like effect,of which the action mechanism might be due to gene expression regulation in hippocampus.更多还原

【Abstract】 Objective:To investigate whether pinching spine(PS,i.e.捏脊,a traditional Chinese manipulative therapy) is beneficial to ameliorating the depressive state(including behavioral deficit,retardative weight gain and decreased sucrose consumption) in a rat model of depression induced by chronic unpredictable stress(CUS)and to explore the candidate mechanism of action.Methods:PS was performed on rats’ spine once daily for 1week after exposure to CUS.The open-field test,body weight measuring,and sucrose intake test were applied on different dates:before stress(dO),at the end of stress(d21) and after PS treatment(d28),respectively.Then the rats’ hippocampuses were performed genome-wide microarray analysis,and the expression levels of several genes were evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction(PCR).Results:Exposure to CUS resulted in decreases of behavioral activity and sucrose consumption,which were reversed significantly after PS treatment.The expression of several genes relevant to energy metabolism,anti-oxidation,and olfactory receptor,etc.,were down-regulated,while the expression of those relevant to hemostasis,immunity-inflammation,and restriction of activities and ingestion,etc.,were up-regulated in hippocampuses of rats exposed to CUS.PS treatment significantly inverted these changes.Furthermore,increase or decrease in gene expression evaluated by realtime PCR was concordant with up-regulated or down-regulated expression evaluated by microarray analysis.Conclusion:PS showed a potential antidepressant-like effect,of which the action mechanism might be due to gene expression regulation in hippocampus.更多还原