[Effect of electroacupuncture intervention on renal function and expression of renal beta-catenin in rats with chronic renal failure].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) intervention on renal function and expression of renal beta-catenin in rats with chronic renal failure (CRF), so as to reveal its mechanism underlying improvement of CRF. METHODS: Male SD rats were randomly divided into normal, model and EA groups, with 10 rats in each group. CRF model was induced by feeding the rats with 0.5% Adenine(100 mg/d, in forage) for 21 days. EA (1-3 mA, 1.5-2 Hz) was applied to bilateral "San-yinjiao" (SP 6), "Taixi" (KI 3) and "Shenshu" (BL 23) for 20 min, once daily for 30 days. Serum creatinine (Scr) and blood urine nitrogen (BUN) contents were assayed by enzymatic method and deoxy enzymatic method, respectively, and the expression of p-catenin protein in the renal tissue was determined by Western blot. RESULTS: Following modeling, serum Scr and BUN contents and renal p-catenin protein expression level were significantly increased in the model group in comparison with those of the normal group (P<0.05). After EA intervention, serum Scr and BUN contents and the expression of beta-catenin in the renal tissue were all significantly decreased in the EA group compared to the model group (P<0.05). In addition, the animals' body weight values of both model and EA groups were apparently lower than those of the normal group before EA treatment (P<0.05). After EA intervention, the body weight values of the EA group were markedly higher than those of the model group in spite of being still lower than normal rats (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: EA can effectively suppress CRF-induced increase of serum Scr and BUN contents and renal beta-catenin protein expression in CRF rats, suggesting an improvement of the renal function after EA intervention by reducing the expression of beta-catenin in the renal tissue.