Drugs can cause obvious damage to the brain. To verify the relationship between acupuncture, neurotrophic factor expression and brain cell structural changes, this study established a rat model of heroin relapse using intramuscular injection of increasing amounts of heroin. During the detoxiifcation period, rat models received acupuncture at Baihui (DU20) and Dazhui (DU14). Electron microscopy demonstrated that the structure of the ventral tegmental area in heroin relapse rats gradually became normalized after acupuncture treatment. Immunohistochem-ical staining exhibited that the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor increased in the ventral tegmental area following acupuncture. Moreover, the effects were similar to that of methadone, a type of medicine called an opioid. Results suggested that acupuncture at Baihui and Dazhui protected brain neurons against injury in rats with heroin relapse by promoting brain-derived neurotrophic factor and glial cell line-de-rived neurotrophic factor expression.

Preliminary basic research and clinical ifndings have demonstrated that electroacupuncture ther-apy exhibits positive effects in ameliorating depression. However, most studies of the underlying mechanism are at the single gene level;there are few reports regarding the mechanism at the whole-genome level. Using a rat genomic gene-chip, we proifled hippocampal gene expression changes in rats after electroacupuncture therapy. Electroacupuncture therapy alleviated depres-sion-related manifestations in the model rats. Using gene-chip analysis, we demonstrated that electroacupuncture at Baihui (DU20) and Yintang (EX-HN3) regulates the expression of 21 genes. Real-time PCR showed that the genes Vg f, Ig f2, Tmp32, Loc500373, Hif1a, Folr1, Nmb, and Rtn were upregulated or downregulated in depression and that their expression tended to nor-malize after electroacupuncture therapy. These results indicate that electroacupuncture at Baihui and Yintang modulates depression by regulating the expression of particular genes.