Abstract
Objectives The present study was designed to investigate the effects of bee venom extract pharmacopunctureon (BVP) at 肩井 (GB21) on the changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) in normal rats, and further to determine the mechanisms. Methods We purchased rats about 300g and prepared diluted BVP with normal saline. And we injected diluted BVP to rats gradually progressed from 0.001 mg/kg to 0.1 mg/kg at corresponding region to GB21. After injection, we measured the changes in rCBF and MABP of rats. In addition, to determine the mechanisms of this changes, we did the same experiments twice more after pretreatment with indomethacin and metylene blue separately. Results BVP significantly increased rCBF but decreased MABP, suggesting that BVP potently may increase rCBF by dilating pial arterial diameter. Furthermore, the increase of BVP-induced rCBF and the decrease of BVP-induced MABP were significantly blocked by pretreatment with cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin (1 mg/kg, i.p.). But the increase of BVP-induced rCBF and the decrease of BVP-induced MABP were not blocked by pretreatment with guanylate cyclase inhibitor, methylene blue (0.01 mg/kg, i.p.). Conclusions These findings indicate that the action of BVP is mediated by cyclooxygenase. Furthermore these results suggest that BVP can increase rCBF in normal state, as well as improve the stability of rCBF in ischemic state.
