Anticonvulsion effect of acupuncture might be related to the decrease of neuronal and inducible nitric oxide synthases

To measure the levels of hippocampal nitric oxide synthase isoforms in peni cillin induced epilepsy and to test the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) o n changes of theses levels during epilepsy, we injected penicillin into rat hippocampus to make an epilepsy model and performed electroacupuncture tre atment on "Feng Fu" (DU 16) and "Jin Sue" (DU 8) points in Wistar rats. Nit ric Oxide synthase (NOS) mRNA levels of rat hippocampus were determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). The neuronal nitri c oxide synthase (nNOS) mRNA markedly increased (P<0.01) and inducible nitr ic oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA significantly emerged during epilepsy, wherea s no significant change in epithelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) mRNA was observed. EA inhibited the epilepsy and decreased nNOS (P<0.01) and iNOS ( P<0.01) correspondingly but had no effect on the amount of eNOS mRNA. The d ata suggest that penicillin-induced epilepsy caused an increase in nNOS and iNOS, and the EA anticonvulsant effect might be related to the decrease of these nitric oxide synthases.