Acupuncture modulates stress response by the mTOR signaling pathway in a rat post-traumatic stress disorder model.

ABSTRACT: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disease that can form following exposure to a traumatic event. Acupuncture has been proposed as a beneficial treatment for PTSD, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The present study investigated whether acupuncture improves depression- and anxiety-like behaviors induced using a single prolonged stress (SPS) as a PTSD rat model. In addition, we investigated whether the effects were mediated by increased mTOR activity and its downstream signaling components, which contribute to protein synthesis required for synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. We found that acupuncture at HT8 significantly alleviated both depression- and anxiety-like behaviors induced by SPS in rats, as assessed by the forced swimming, elevated plus maze,

SUBMITTER: Oh JY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6082850 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature