RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effects of Treatment of Treadmill Combined with Electro-Acupuncture on Tibia Bone Mass and Substance PExpression of Rabbits with Sciatic Nerve Injury Yan Wang1,2*, Qiang Tang1,2, Luwen Zhu1,2¤, Ruyi Huang2, Lei Huang2¤, Melanie Koleini3, Dequan Zou4
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1 The 2nd affiliated hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China, 2 Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China, 3 HRPO, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, 4 Program in Physical Therapy, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America ¤ Current address: Rehabilitation Centre of the 2nd affiliated hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, 411 Guogeli Street Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, 150001, China *
[email protected]
OPEN ACCESS Citation: Wang Y, Tang Q, Zhu L, Huang R, Huang L, Koleini M, et al. (2016) Effects of Treatment of Treadmill Combined with Electro-Acupuncture on Tibia Bone Mass and Substance PExpression of Rabbits with Sciatic Nerve Injury. PLoS ONE 11 (11): e0164652. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0164652 Editor: Silvana Allodi, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL Received: April 20, 2016 Accepted: September 28, 2016 Published: November 23, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: This study was supported by the Fund of Innovative Talents of the Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine (grant number 051290). Additional funding for this study was provided by a postdoctoral research award from the Administration Office of Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Program (grant number LBH-Z13202).
Abstract The peripheral nervous system may play an important role in normal bone maintenance and remodeling. Substance P (SP) is a neuropeptide associated with bone loss and formation that may mediate the effects of the nervous system. The purpose of this study is to determine if treadmill running combined with electro-acupuncture at Jiaji acupoints (Jiaji-EA) affects tibial bone mass and SP expression in rabbits with sciatic nerve injury. Twenty-four juvenile male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly assigned to one of 4 groups: sham injury control (sham), sciatic never crush control (SNCr), treadmill running (treadmill), and Jiaji-EA combined with treadmill running (ET group). The SNCr, treadmill, and ET groups all had an induced sciatic never crush injury of approximately 2mm. Control groups received no intervention; the treadmill and ET groups were trained by treadmill; the ET group also received Jiaji-EA. After the 4 weeks of treatment, toe-spreading index (TSI), BMD, bone strength, and SP expression in the tibia were significantly lower in the nerve injury groups (SNCr, treadmill, and ET) compared to the sham groups (p
