Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation alleviates adverse cardiac remodeling induced by overload training in rats

Electroacupuncture has been previously shown to alleviate cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury. Overload training (OT) exercise can result in profound cardiac damage and remodeling. In this study, we aimed to examine whether transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS), a novel non-invasive and low-risk alternative of electroacupuncture, could counteract short-term OT-induced cardiac remodeling, fibrosis, autophagy and apoptosis. Sixty rats were randomly divided into 8 groups (n= 7-8/group): control, regular exercise (RE), OT, OT plus low-, moderate- or high-frequency of TEAS preconditioning, OT plus moderate-frequency of TEAS postconditioning or of transcutaneous electrical non-acupoint stimulation (TENAS) preconditioning. The cardiac weight index (heart weight to body weight) was determined. The left ventricular morphology was examined by hematoxylin and eosin staining. The cardiac fibrosis and apoptosis were respectively determined by Masson's trichrome and TUNEL staining. The presence of autophagosomes was observed by transmission electron microcopy. The expressions of autophagic markers (LC3 II/I and Beclin-1) were determined by western blot. The results showed that: 1) OT induced adverse cardiac structure changes but didn't affect the cardiac weight index. 2) OT increased cardiac fibrosis and apoptosis, and induced autophagosome formation with up-regulated LC3 II/I and Beclin-1 expressions. 3) TEAS preconditioning effectively alleviated OT-induced cardiac structure changes, fibrosis, apoptosis and autophagy. 4) Preconditioning of TEAS produced better protective effects than postconditioning of TEAS or TENAS preconditioning. Our results demonstrate that TEAS preconditioning protects the heart from OT-induced cardiac injury/remodeling probably by inhibition of fibrosis, autophagy and apoptosis.

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