Electroacupuncture improves cardiac function and remodeling by inhibition of sympathoexcitation in chronic heart failure rats

Abstract

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, mainly as a result of neurohumoral activation. Acupuncture has been used to treat a wide range of diseases and conditions. In this study, we investigated the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on the sympathetic nerve activity, heart function, and remodeling in CHF rats after ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. CHF rats were randomly selected to EA and control groups for acute and chronic experiments. In the acute experiment, both the renal sympathetic nerve activity and cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex elicited by epicardial application of capsaicin were recorded. In the chronic experiment, we performed EA for 30 min once a day for 1 wk to test the long-term EA effects on heart function, remodeling, as well as infarct size in CHF rats. The results show EA significantly decreased the renal sympathetic nerve activity effectively, inhibited cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex, and lowered the blood pressure of CHF rats. Treating CHF rats with EA for 1 wk dramatically increased left ventricular ejection fraction and left ventricular fraction shortening, reversed the enlargement of left ventricular end-systolic dimension and left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, and shrunk the infarct size. In this experiment, we demonstrated EA attenuates sympathetic overactivity. Additionally, long-term EA improves cardiac function and remodeling and reduces infarct size in CHF rats. EA is a novel and potentially useful therapy for treating CHF.

Chronic electroacupuncture of the ST36 point improves baroreflex function and haemodynamic parameters in heart failure rats

“…Our study shows a reduction in LV hypertrophy in the EA group. These data corroborate the findings demonstrating that EA improved the cardiac structure and function in animals with this model of HF and additionally reduced the sympathetic activity (Ma et al, 2014). However, Ma et al (2014) did not evaluate the baroreflex sensitivity and, in this context, our study demonstrated for the first time that EA improves baroreflex function in HF rats.…”

“…Recently, a well-design study demonstrated that EA attenuates sympathetic over activity, improves cardiac function and remodelling and reduces infarct size in HF rats and postulated EA as a novel and potentially useful therapy for treating HF (Ma et al, 2014). Furthermore, most studies show only short-period acupuncture applications, which makes it difficult to prove the long-lasting effects of acupuncture in chronic situations.…”

Cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex and its implications for sympathetic activation in chronic heart failure and hypertension

“…) or electroacupuncture (Ma et al . ) inhibited CSAR and sympathetic activity, and improved cardiovascular dysfunction.…”

Acupoint dependence of depressor and bradycardic responses elicited by manual acupuncture stimulation in humans

“…Li et al [26] demonstrated that an electroacupuncture stimulation at the median nerve reduced reflex-regional myocardial ischemia in anesthetized cats. Ma et al [27] showed that treating heart failure rats with electroacupuncture for 1 week markedly increased the left ventricular ejection fraction, reversed the enlargement of the left ventricle, and shrunk the infarct size. Lima et al [28] reported improvements in hemodynamic parameters in heart failure rats by chronic electroacupuncture at the ST36 acupoint.…”