[Effect of acupotomy intervention on cervicomuscular apoptosis in cervical spondylosis rabbits]

To observe the effect of acupotomy therapy on cervicomuscular apoptosis and apoptosis regulator Bax protein expression in cervical spondylosis (CS) rabbits so as to investigate its mechanisms underlying improvement of CS.

Twenty-four New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into normal control, model, acupotomy and electroacupuncture (EA) groups, with 6 rabbits in each group. The CS model was made by forced head-bowing for 5 hours in a restrained chamber, once daily for 12 weeks. Acupotomy was performed at the starting point of trapezius, the mastoid process attaching point of sternocleidomastoid, the cerverical vertebrae joint process or the local induration or cord-like mass (2 or 3 points of them were used as the needle-knife entering points), once a week for 3 weeks. For animals of the EA group, EA (2 Hz/100 Hz, 2 mA) was applied to bilateral "Tianzhu" (BL 10), "Jingbailao" (EX-HN 15), "Dazhu" (BL 11) for 20 min, once daily and 3 times a week for 3 weeks. The number of apoptotic cells in the cervical muscle was observed by light microscope after TUNEL staining and muscular Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression was detected by Western blot.

In comparison with the control group, the number of cervicomuscular apoptotic cells, and the expression level of cervicomuscular Bax protein were significantly increased, and the Bcl-2/Bax was obviously decreased in the model group (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). Compared to the model group, the number of apoptotic cells and the expression level of muscular Bax protein were notably decreased in the acupotomy group (P < 0.01, P < 0.05), while the ratio of Bcl-2 and Bax was apparently increased in the acupotomy group (P < 0.05). The effects of acupotomy were significantly superior to those of EA in lowering apoptotic cell number and in up-regulating Bcl-2/Bax (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the EA and model groups in the apoptotic cell number and among the four groups in Bcl-2 protein expression levels (P > 0.05).

Acupotomy therapy can reduce cervicomuscular cellular apoptosis and Bax protein expression in CS rabbits, which may be one of its mechanism underlying improving CS.