Objective: To investigate the effect of electric mildly-warmed needle of inner Mongolian medicine on changes of free radical metabolism in the liver tissue of rats with fatigue.
Methods: A total of 33 male SD rats were evenly randomized into control, model and electro-mildly-warmed needle (EMWN) groups. Fatigue model was established by forcing the rat to swim in a water pool till exhaustion, once daily, continuously for 21 days. "Dinghui" (central spot of the bregmatic bone) and "Xinxue" (the center of the depression beneath the 7th thoracic vertebra) were punctured with silver needle which was warmed electrically by using a MLY-I Electrical Needle-warming Apparatus, once every 3 days. 7 sessions altogether. After decapitation, the rat's liver was taken, homogenated and centrifuged for detecting malondialdehyde (MDA) content with thio-barbituric acid, reduced glutathione (GSH) contents, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity with chromatometry and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity with xanthine oxidase method respectively.
Results: Compared with control group, liver GSH content, GSH-Px and SOD activity in model group lowered significantly (P < 0.05, 0.01), while in comparison with model group, these 3 indexes of EMWN group increased considerably (P < 0.05, 0.01). No significant differences were found among 3 groups in MDA levels (P > 0.05). The results showed that the effect of mildly-warmed needle treatment could resist fatigue induced decline of activity of antioxidant enzymes.
Conclusion: Electric mildly-warmed needle therapy of inner Mongolian medicine can raise the activity of antioxidant enzymes in liver tissue of fatigue rats, which may underlie the action of mildly-warmed needle in improving fatigue.