Electroacupuncture preconditioning attenuates acute myocardial ischemia injury through inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in mice

Publication date: Available online 20 February 2020Source: Life SciencesAuthor(s): Tao Zhang, Wen-xiu Yang, Ya-ling Wang, Jing Yuan, Yi Qian, Qin-mei Sun, Mei-ling Yu, Shu-ping Fu, Bin Xu, Sheng-feng LuAbstractAimsElectro-acupuncture pretreatment (EAP) plays a protective role in myocardial ischemia (MI) injury. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. A growing body of evidence suggests postinfarction inflammatory response directly affects the remodeling of ventricular function. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether EAP alleviates MI through NLRP3 inflammasome inhibition.Materials and methodsWe constructed an AMI model by ligating the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery after 3 days of EAP with C57BL/6 mice. Echocardiography and TTC staining were employed to evaluate cardiac function and infarct size after 24 h of ischemia. HE staining and immunohistochemistry were employed to determine inflammatory level. Then, inflammasome activation was detected by western blotting, and macrophage polarization and neutrophil infiltration were observed by flow cytometry.Key findingsOur preliminary findings showed that EAP reduced the infarct area and increased fractional shortening (FS) and ejection fraction (EF) and decreased the degree of inflammation after AMI injury. Meanwhile, EAP inhibited the expression of NLRP3, cleaved caspase-1 and IL-1β in ischemia myocardial tissue, companied by inhibiting the expression of F4/80+, CD11b+, CD206low macrop...

Source: Life Sciences - February 20, 2020 Category: Biology Source Type: research