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ABSTRACT KEY WORDS: Electro-Acupuncture (EA), Hand Skin
Temperature (HST), radioimmunoreactive beta-endorphin (rß-E),
ovulation, radioimmunoassay (RIA)
MATERIALS AND METHODS On the 10th day of each menstruation cycle, the patients were treated with EA. "Guanyuan" "Zhongji," "Sanyinjiao" and both sides of "Zigong" points were stimulated for 30 min. at 8:00 AM, OD for 3 days. The stimulation parameters were 7-10mA and 4-5HZ with G6805 model generator. The electric current of EA was bearable for every patient. Before and after the EA, HST was measured by a semiconduct thermometer and blood samples were collected from the forearm vien of patients for ß-E RIA. Five healthy woman voluteers with normal menstruation cycle were selected as controls. They were 31 to 35 years old and the menstruation cycle was 28 days. BBT showed change of biphase. All of them were healthy in premenorrhea and did not take any drug one month before EA. The stimulation points and parameters of EA were the same as above mentioned. Plasma ß-Enorphin Radioimmunoassay The sensitive radioimmunoassay was performed as a routine in our lab (2,3), to determine the concentration of ß-E in the samples of plasma. Each estimative tube was added 0.1ml 1:8000 rabbit ß-E antiserum, 0.1ml[125]I-ß-E . That is 0.03ml sheep antiserum to rabbit gamma-globulin diluted 20-fold with RIA buffer was added to each tube, than shaken and incubated at 0-4°C for 24 hours, and centrifuged at 3,000g for 15 min. The supernatant was poured out and the precipitate was counted for radioactivity in Model FH 408 gamma counter. ß-E contents were quantitated according to the standard curve which was performed at the same time with the sample tubes. The least detected quantity of RIA was 10pg/tube.
RESULTS It was adopted standards of ovulation that BBT showed biphase and EI became cyclic variation. Six of 13 menstruation cycles treated with EA showed ovulation, while the other 7 cycles failed to do so. No EA effect was found in normal control subjects. In the 13 anovulatary cycles, increased HST occurred in 6 cycles, of which 5 cycles showed ovulation after EA treatment. 7 cycles manifested decreased HST and only one of them produced ovulation (Table 1). No regular change was seen in HST in normal subjects. Table l. Effect of EA Induction of
Ovulation in 13 Cycles Change of Plasrna rß-E In normal menstruation cycles the level of plasma rß-E before and after EA fluctuated and returned to the preacupural level after 30 minutes. In the 13 anovulatory cycles the level of plasma rß-E on the 10th day of the cycles was higher but not statistically significant from that of normal subjects. After EA the plasma rß-E contents of 6 cycles with ovulation either declined or maintained within the range of normal. And the plasma level of 7 cycles that failed to show ovulation after EA were significantly higher than those of normal subjects and 6 ovulatory cases as estimated by t test (P<0.05), (Table 2). Table 2. Changes of blood ß-E level before
and after EA* (pg/ml) Cycles which showed increase of HST after EA were associated with a declination of plasma rß-E Ievel but in cycles where HST decreased, the plasma rß-E level elevated after EA. There was a negative correlation between changes of plasma rß-E and HST as measured by rank correlation (r=0.677, P<0.01).
DISCUSSION From present results, it seems that the successful rate of EA ovulation induction was higher in patients with the depression of sympathetic activity. In normal subject whether HST increased or declined, no influence in ovulation was found. These results suggest that the relationship of ovulation and HST in normal women is different from that in anovulatory patients. Yen and his colleagues (4) first reported that enogenous opioid peptides can inhibit pituitary pulse secreting LH. Fumiko, Akio and Michael reported in succession that morphine, ß-E and dynorphin can also depress LH pulse secretion (5,6,7). These substances may exert their action via regulating the secretion of LH-RH in hypothalmus. EA can affect the central opioid peptide level (2,8,9) thus it may regulate the function of hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis via brain endogenous opiod peptides, such as ß-E and dynorphin etc. In this study 11 cycles were PCO and the blood LH level in these cycles was marked higher than that of normal subjects. EA may promote the release of ß-E in the brain and reduce LH-RH secretion from hypothalamus. Therefore, the blood LH content released from the pituitary was decreased. This might be one of the mechanisms of EA ovulation induction. The injection of ß-E into rat cerebellomedullary cisterm resulted in the increase of blood epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) levels, and there was a positive correlation in the dose of ß-E and the levels of blood E, NE, and DA (10). The result suggests that control ß-E may influence the activity of the sympathetic system. Our study showed that the sympathetic activity in normal subjects was not affected and the level of blood ß-E was relatively stable. Thus EA was not able to influence the normal ovulatory cycles. In anovulatory patients, especially in PCO cases, EA can depress sympathetic activity resulting in the increase of HST and the lowering the level of blood ß-E. These results suggest that in anovulatory cases the hyperactive sympathetic system can be depressed by EA and the function of the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis can be regulated by EA via central sympathetic system. This might be another possible mechanism of EA ovulation induction. Our study also suggest that measuring HST my provide a rough but simple method for predicting the effect of EA ovulation induction. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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