The mechanisms through which auricular vagus nerve stimulation protects against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Zhao, Jing-Jun Wang, Zheng-Hui Zhang, Ying-Jie Wang, Wen-Jing Cheng, Ai-Fang Rong, Pei-Jing Shan, Chun-Lei
Copyright Year	2022
Abstract	Previous studies have shown that vagus nerve stimulation can improve patients’ locomotor function. The stimulation of the auricular vagus nerve, which is the only superficial branch of the vagus nerve, may have similar effects to vagus nerve stimulation. However, the precise mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, rat models of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury were established by modified Longa ligation. Twenty-four hours later, 7-day auricular vagus nerve stimulation was performed. The results showed that auricular vagus nerve stimulation promoted the secretion of acetylcholine, inhibited the secretion of interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α, and reduced connexin 43 phosphorylation in the ischemic penumbra and motor cortex, promoting locomotor function recovery in rats with cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. These findings suggested that auricular vagus nerve stimulation promotes the recovery of locomotor function in rats with cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by altering the secretion of acetylcholine and inflammatory factors and the phosphorylation of connexin 43. This study was approved by the Animal Use and Management Committee of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine on November 8, 2019 (approval No. PZSHUTCM191108014).
ISSN	16735374
Volume Number	17
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8504367
Issue Number	3
PubMed reference number	34380899
Journal	Neural Regeneration Research [Neural Regen Res]
e-ISSN	18767958
DOI	10.4103/1673-5374.320992
Language	English
Publisher	Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
Publisher Date	2022-03-01
Publisher Place	India
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Copyright: © Neural Regeneration Research
Subject Keyword	auricular vagus nerve stimulation connexin 43 gap junction inflammatory factor ischemia/reperfusion injury neurological function neuroprotection stroke
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Developmental Neuroscience Neuroscience