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Ovarian blood flow responses to electro-acupuncture stimulation depends on estrous cycle, and on site and frequency of stimulation in anesthetized rats.

Stener-Victorin E, Fujisawa S, Kurosawa M

Department of Endocrinology, Sahlgrenska Academy, Goteborg University, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Goteborg, Sweden.

Electro-acupuncture (EA) applied to the abdomen and hind limb modulates the ovarian blood flow (OBF) response. The present study aimed to further elucidate the role of the site and the frequency of short-term EA stimulation and the influence of the estrous cycle on the OBF response using anesthetized rats. EA stimulation was applied to the abdominal or the hind limb at three different frequencies, 2, 10, and 80 Hz, during the estrus or diestrus phase. Involvement of spinal and supraspinal reflexes in OBF responses to EA stimulation was investigated by spinal cord transection. Abdominal EA stimulation at 10 Hz increased the OBF response, while hind limb EA stimulation at 10 Hz and abdominal and hind limb stimulation at 80 Hz decreased the OBF response; 2-Hz EA caused no OBF response. The OBF response to abdominal EA was more pronounced in the estrus than the diestrus phase. The OBF response to abdominal and hind limb EA stimulation at both 10 Hz and 80 Hz was almost abolished, both after severance of the sympathetic nerves and after spinal cord transection. In conclusion, the OBF response to both abdominal and hind limb EA stimulation was mediated as a reflex response via the ovarian sympathetic nerves, and the response was controlled via supraspinal pathways. Further, the OBF response to segmental abdominal EA stimulation was frequency dependent and amplified in the estrous phase.

Published 3 March 2006 in J Appl Physiol.
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