Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Both acupuncture and neural stem cell therapy have good achievements in the treatment of cerebral palsy, but there are few reports about their combined therapy.
OBJECTIVE: To observe the therapeutic effect of combined therapy of acupuncture and neural stem cell transplantation on cerebral palsy rats and to explore the relevant mechanism of action.
METHODS: Cerebral palsy models were built in newborn rats, and then, the model rats were subjected to acupuncture, neural stem cell transplantation and their combination, respectively. Meanwhile, normal control group and model group were set up.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared with the other groups, in the combined therapy group, the behavior scores of cerebral palsy rats improved significantly (P < 0.05), the number of nerve cells and Bcl-2 protein expression were increased significantly (P < 0.05), and the number of apoptotic nerve cells and Bax protein expression were decreased significantly (P < 0.05). Additionally, there were no significant differences in these indicators among the model, acupuncture and neural stem cell transplantation groups. These findings indicate that the combined therapy of acupuncture and neural stem cell therapy can obviously improve learning and memory ability of cerebral palsy rats and reduce neuronal apoptosis, which is probably associated with down-regulation of Bax protein and up-regulation of Bcl-2 protein. 
中国组织工程研究杂志出版内容重点：干细胞；骨髓干细胞；造血干细胞；脂肪干细胞；肿瘤干细胞；胚胎干细胞；脐带脐血干细胞；干细胞诱导；干细胞分化；组织工程

Key words: Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells, Acupuncture, Apoptosis