Evidence Details for Fos
PMID Title Journal Year Abstract
16355445 Acupuncture reduces alcohol withdrawal syndrome and c-Fos expression in rat brain. Am J Chin Med. 2005;33(6):887-96. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X0500348X. 2005 Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the treatment of many functional disorders including alcohol abuse. In the present study, the effects of acupuncture on alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) and Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the striatum and the nucleus accumbens (NAC) of rats were investigated. During 3 days of cessation following chronic administration of ethanol (3 g/kg, i.p. for 3 weeks), rats showed a significant increase in AWS, such as hypermotility, tail rigidity, grooming and tremor, and an increase in FLI in the dopamine terminal areas of the brain. Treatment with acupuncture at zusanli (ST36) or sanyinjiao (SP6) during the withdrawal period inhibited both AWS and FLI of rats undergoing ethanol injection. These results suggest that acupuncture may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism by modulating post-synaptic neural activation in the striatum and NAC."

Evidence Sentence: The aim of the present study was to examine whether acupuncture could affect the postsynaptic neural activations as evaluated by expression of c-fos in the central dopaminergic terminal areas, which are known to be associated with AWS. Therefore, we investigated whether acupuncture at ST36 or SP6 would attenuate AWS, and striatal and accumbal FLI in alcoholized rats utilizing Fos-like immunohistochemistry