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eCAM Advance Access published online on October 7, 2008
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nen064
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Electroacupuncture Delays Hypertension Development through Enhancing NO/NOS Activity in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Hye Suk Hwang, Yoo Sung Kim, Yeon Hee Ryu, Ji Eun Lee, Young Seop Lee, Eun Jin Yang, Myeong Soo Lee and Sun-Mi Choi

Department of Medical Research, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

Using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), this study investigated whether electroacupuncture (EA) could reduce early stage hypertension by examining nitric oxide (NO) levels in plasma and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) levels in the mesenteric resistance artery. EA was applied to the acupuncture point Governor Vessel 20 (GV20) or to a non-acupuncture point in the tail twice weekly for 3 weeks under anesthesia. In conscious SHR and normotensive Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats, blood pressure was determined the day after EA treatment by the tail-cuff method. We measured plasma NO concentration, and evaluated endothelial NO syntheses (eNOS) and neuronal NOS (nNOS) protein expression in the mesenteric artery. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were lower after 3 weeks of GV20 treatment than EA at non-acupuncture point and no treatment control in SHR. nNOS expression by EA was significantly different between both WKY and no treatment SHR control, and EA at GV20 in SHR. eNOS expression was significantly high in EA at GV 20 compared with no treatment control. In conclusion, EA could attenuate the blood pressure elevation of SHR, along with enhancing NO/NOS activity in the mesenteric artery in SHR.

Keywords: acupuncture – hypertension – mesenteric artery – nitric oxide

For reprints and all correspondence: Myeong Soo Lee, PhD, Department of Medical Research, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, 461-24, Jeonmin-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-811, Korea. Tel: +82-42-868-9266; Fax: +82-42-863-9464; E-mail: drmslee{at}gmail.com or mslee{at}kiom.re.kr

Received June 11, 2008; accepted September 11, 2008


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