Objective: To evaluate the protein expression and distribution of Notch signaling-related, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the bone marrow cells of mice. Additionally, verification of acupuncture regulated protein expression of these DEGs to protect bone marrow stem cells and alleviate cyclophosphamide (CTX) chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression was examined as well.Methods: Thirty two Healthy male Kunming mice of clean grade were randomized into blank group (A), model group (B), acupuncture group (C) and moxibustion group (D). Mice in groups B, C, and D were intraperitoneally injected with 100mg/kg/d CTX for three successive days to generate the myelosuppressive model; while mice in group A were injected with an equivalent volume of sterile saline. After immobilizing the animals, mice in groups C and D received daily acupuncture and moxibustion in points "DU14", "BL17" " BL23" and " ST36"respectively,while those in group A and B were received no treatment. After five days of treatment,the mice were euthanized by cervical dislocation and their femurs collected for marrow harvest , Small-throughput cDNA microarray was used for initial DEG screening, followed by immunohistochemistry, realtime quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and Western Blot analysis to detect protein expression and quantity of the Notch signaling-related DEGs in the bone marrow cells.Results: Expression of numb proteins (i.e., numb1 and numb2) was found to be upregulated while notch2 and jag1 were down regulated in bone marrow cells of acupuncture-treated, tumor-bearing mice.Conclusion: Notch signaling pathway serves as an important signal transduction pathway for acupuncture and moxibustion to relieve CTX chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression. Regulation of associated DEGs in notch signaling pathway in marrow cells is the key mechanism by which acupuncture and moxibustion improve marrow hematopoiesis after chemotherapy.
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