Maternal acupuncture effects on surfactant and antioxidant enzymes in preterm rat lungs

The objectives of this study are to evaluate the effects of maternal acupuncture treatment on lung maturation in preterm rats. Two stainless-steel needles were inserted into the Tsu-San-Li locus in the right hind leg of timed pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats for 30 min. One-day acupuncture-group mothers received electroacupuncture on day 18 of gestation. Two-day acupuncture-group mothers received electroacupuncture on days 17 and 18 of gestation. Control-group mothers received acupuncture at a site not contained in the Atlas of Human Acupuncture Points on day 18 of pregnancy. On day 19 of gestation, pups in all dams were delivered by cesarean section. Maternal 2-day acupuncture treatment significantly increased total phospholipids in fetal lung tissue when compared with control and 1-day acupuncture-treated groups. Two-day acupuncture-treated fetuses had higher saturated phosphatidylcholine level in lung tissue although the difference did not reach statistical significance. Two-day acupuncture-treated fetuses had significantly lower superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activities than did the control and 1-day acupuncture-treated fetuses. We conclude that maternal acupuncture treatment affects surfactant and antioxidant enzyme development in contrasting ways and may have both beneficial and potentially harmful effects on different aspects of lung development.