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Background: Oxidative stress and inflammatory responses play essential roles in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used as a rehabilitation method for stroke in China; however, the underlying mechanism of action remains unclear. Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) has been reported to impact anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects. Objective: This study investigated the role of PPAR-γ in EA-mediated effects and aimed to illuminate its possible mechanisms in cerebral I/R. Methods: In this study, male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) injury were treated with EA at LI11 and ST36 for 30 min daily after MCAO/R for seven consecutive days. The neuroprotective effects of EA were measured by neurobehavioral evaluation, triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining, hematoxylin–eosin staining and transmission electron microscopy. Oxidative stress, inflammatory factors, neural apoptosis and microglial activation were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunofluorescence and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Western blotting was used to assess PPAR-γ-mediated signaling. Results: We found that EA significantly alleviated cerebral I/R-induced infarct volume, decreased neurological scores and inhibited I/R-induced oxidative stress, inflammatory responses and microglial activation. EA also increased PPAR-γ protein expression. Furthermore, the protective effects of EA were reversed by injection of the PPAR-γ antagonist T0070907. Conclusion: EA attenuates cerebral I/R injury by regulating oxidative stress, neuronal death and neuroinflammation via stimulation of PPAR-γ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Electroacupuncture attenuates cervical spinal cord injury following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in stroke-prone renovascular hypertensive rats" published in Experimental & Therapeutic Medicine in 2014 has been retracted due to concerns about data integrity. An investigation revealed similarities in cellular patterns and motifs in the immunohistochemical experiments, leading to the decision to retract the article. The authors did not provide an explanation for these concerns, prompting the retraction. [Extracted from the article]

Cerebral ischemia induces injury, not only in the ischemic core and surrounding penumbra tissues, but also in remote areas such as the cervical spinal cord. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on cervical spinal cord injury following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in stroke-prone renovascular hypertensive (RHRSP) rats. The results demonstrated that neuronal loss, which was assayed by Nissl staining in the cervical spinal cords of RHRSP rats subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), was markedly decreased by EA stimulation at the GV20 (Baihui) and GV14 (Dazhui) acupoints compared with that in rats undergoing sham stimulation. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis demonstrated that EA stimulation blocked the MCAO-induced elevated protein expression levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein and amyloid precursor protein in the cervical spinal cord at days 24 and 48. To further investigate the mechanism underlying the neuroprotective role of EA stimulation, the protein expression levels of Nogo-A and Nogo-66 receptor-1 (NgR1), two key regulatory molecules for neurite growth, were recorded in each group. The results revealed that EA stimulation reduced the MCAO-induced elevation of Nogo-A and NgR1 protein levels at day 14 and 28 in RHRSP rats. Therefore, the results demonstrated that EA reduced cervical spinal cord injury following cerebral ischemia in RHRSP rats, indicating that EA has the potential to be developed as a therapeutic treatment agent for cervical spinal cord injury following stroke.

In the present study, a facile in situ approach for constructing tunable amphiphilic or hydrophilic antifouling membrane surfaces was demonstrated by exquisitely manipulating the microphase separation and surface segregation behavior of the tailor-made ternary amphiphilic block copolymers during the commonly utilized wet phase inversion membrane-formation process. Under dead-end filtration for oily wastewater treatment, the membrane with amphiphilic surface exhibited over 99.5% retention ratio of chemical oxygen demand (COD) without appreciable membrane fouling: the water permeation flux was slightly decreased during operation (total flux decline was 6.8%) and almost completely recovered to the initial value (flux recovery ratio was more than 99.0%) after simple hydraulic washing. While for the proteins-containing wastewater treatment, the membrane with hydrophilic surface exhibited about 52.6% COD retention ratio and superior antifouling performance: only 17.0% total flux decline and also more than 99.0% flux recovery ratio. Hopefully, the present approach can be developed as a competitive platform technology for the preparation of robust and versatile antifouling membrane, leading to the high process efficiency of wastewater treatments.