Electroacupuncture suppresses myostatin gene expression: cell proliferative reaction in mouse skeletal muscle

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) may provide patients with an alternative to traditional medicine, but an assessment of its efficacy is required. One CAM method, electroacupuncture (EA) treatment, is a maneuver that utilizes stimulation of acupuncture needles with a low-frequency microcurrent. To study the effect of short-term EA, we evaluated the differential expression of genes induced by EA in mouse skeletal muscle for up to 24 h. We then used RT-PCR to confirm the expression patterns of six differentially expressed genes. Bioinformatics analysis of their transcription control regions showed that EA-inducible genes have numerous common binding motifs that are related to cell differentiation, cell proliferation, muscle repair, and hyperplasia. These results suggested that EA treatment may induce cell proliferation in skeletal muscle. To verify this possibility, we used EA to stimulate mouse skeletal muscle daily for up to 1 mo and examined the long-term effects. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that nuclei of muscle cells treated with EA for 1 mo, especially nuclei of satellite cells, reacted with anti-human PCNA. Also, expression of the gene encoding myostatin, which is a growth repressor in muscle satellite cells, was suppressed by daily EA treatment for 1 wk; EA treatment for 1 mo resulted in more marked suppression of the gene. These molecular findings constitute strong evidence that EA treatment suppresses myostatin expression, which leads to a satellite cell-related proliferative reaction and repair in skeletal muscle.

Low-Frequency Electrical Stimulation Attenuates Muscle Atrophy in CKD—A Potential Treatment Strategy

“…16 Electrical acupuncture treatment has been shown to suppress myostatin expression, which leads to a satellite cell-related proliferative reaction and repair in skeletal muscle. 17 Low-frequency electrical stimulation (LFES) is an acupuncture technique that replicates the benefits of resistance exercise through stimulation of muscle contraction.…”

Molecular Evidence: EA May Inhibit the Muscle Atrophy

“…4), an endogenous inhibitor of muscle growth and satellite cell-related muscle regeneration, and EA induced a proliferative reaction of muscle satellite cells (Fig. 4) (Takaoka et al, 2007). Thus, in view of our previous basic research, EA may be an effective method for retaining muscle mass.…”

Experimental study of low-frequency electroacupuncture-induced differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into chondrocytes

“…Electroacupuncture (EA) is a modified acupuncture technique that utilizes electrical stimulation. Previous studies have demonstrated that EA has therapeutic effects on chondral defects including knee osteoarthritis (10)(11)(12) and produces cytokines with multiple biological activities in various types of diseases (13)(14)(15). In addition, animal experiments have shown that EA enhances BMSC differentiation into neuronal cells (16).…”