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Updated: Jul 26, 2025
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to the Unilateral Hemisphere of Rat Brain
Published on: October 22, 2016
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation alleviates glial activation through suppressing HMGB1/TLR4 pathway in a
Chao Han1,2, Xue Zhang1,3, Kaixin Dou1
1Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, No.16 Jiangsu Road, Qingdao, 266003, Shandong Province, People's Republic of China.
Background:
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been demonstrated to be effective in Parkinson's disease (PD), but whether rTMS treatment has a relieving effect on neuroinflammation remains to be investigated. In this article, we explored the effects of rTMS on forelimb use asymmetry and neuroinflammation-related mechanisms in a 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced PD rat model.
Methods And Results:
Rats in the 6-OHDA+rTMS group received 10 Hz rTMS daily for 4 weeks. Behavioral tests (the cylinder test) were performed at the 3rd and 7th weeks after the operation. Astrocyte and microglia activation and protein levels of tyrosine hydroxylase(TH), high-mobility group box 1(HMGB1) and toll-like receptors 4(TLR4) were investigated by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses, respectively. After 4 weeks of treatment, forelimb use asymmetry was ameliorated in the 6-OHDA+rTMS group. Consistent with the behavioral tests, rTMS increased TH in the substantia nigra (SN) and the striatum of PD rats. High glial activation and HMGB1/TLR4 expression in the SN and the striatum were observed in the 6-OHDA group, while rTMS alleviated these changes.
Conclusions:
This study showed that rTMS might be a promising method for alleviating neuroinflammation in PD rat models, and the effects might be mediated through the downregulation of the HMGB1/TLR4 pathway.
