Objective: To investigate the expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) during cerebral ischemia reperfusion with or without electroacupuncture (EA) treatment, meanwhile, the effect of EA on ischemic cerebral injury was also roughly observed.

Methods: In the present study we established a sensitive sandwich time-resolved fluoroimmunoassav method to quantitatively detect the levels of bFGF in rat brain. The focal cerebral ischemia was induced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO) for 2hr, followed by reperfusion for 24hr. The total protein content in striatum and frontoparietal cortex was detected by using Coomassie brilliant blue method, and the expressing levels of bFGF were calculated by using the ratio of the bFGF content and the total protein content.

Results: The results indicated that the cerebral infarction and swelling occurred obviously after ischemia and reperfusion, and the number of opened cerebral blood micrangium increased pronouncedly. In the meantime, the expression level of bFGF also increased clearly from sham-operation group (n=6, striatum: 6.5+/- 2.29 ug/g, frontoparietal cortex: 9.95+/- 2.69 ug/g in) to ischemia group (n=l0, striatum: l6.47+/- 6.62 ug/g,frontoparietal cortex: 26.48+/ 9.63ug/g), to EA +ischemia group (n=l2, striatum: 25.9l+/- l0.06 ug/g, frontoparietal cortex: 42.13+/- l3.25 ug/g).EA could considerably lessen MCAO-induced cerebral infarction and swelling and significantly increase the number of opened micro-vessels.

Conclusion: The results suggest that neuroprotective action of EA may be partially related to its regulative effect on cerebral blood flow and the endogenous expression of bFGF.

By Ouyang Wei, Han Ling, Da Cuidi etc.