To evaluate the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) in a rat model of chronic steroid-induced insulin resistance (SIIR).
An SIIR rat model was created using daily intraperitoneal injections of clinically relevant doses of dexamethasone (1 mg/kg) for 5 days to induce chronic insulin resistance. Thirty-six SIIR rats were randomly divided into the SIIR+EA group (n=18), which received 15 Hz EA at ST36 for 60 min, and the SIIR group (n=18), which remained untreated. Plasma glucose and free fatty acid (FFA) levels were measured in serial blood samples taken without further manipulation (n=6 per group) and during insulin challenge test (ICT, n=6 per group) and intravenous glucose tolerance test (ivGTT, n=6 per group). Insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 and glucose transporter (GLUT)-4 were measured using Western blotting and expressed relative to β-actin.
Following EA, area-under-the-curve (AUC) for glucose was reduced (7340±291 vs 10 705±1474 mg/dL/min, p=0.049) and FFA levels significantly lower at 30/60 min in the SIIR+EA versus SIIR groups. Similar effects on glucose AUC were seen during the ICT (5568±275 vs 7136±594 mg/dL/min, p<0.05) and igVTT (11 498±1398 vs 16 652±1217 mg/dL/min, p<0.01). FFA levels were lower at 30 and/or 60 min in SIIR+EA versus SIIR groups (p<0.01). Relative expression of IRS-1 and GLUT4 were significantly increased by EA (p<0.01).
EA decreased the FFA level and increased insulin sensitivity in SIIR rats. Further clinical studies are needed to determine whether EA is an effective alternative treatment for the reduction of insulin resistance in patients requiring chronic use of dexamethasone.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 August 2016.
All research outputs
#5,347,906
of 26,139,724 outputs
Outputs from Acupuncture in Medicine
#311
of 1,035 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#88,908
of 384,323 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Acupuncture in Medicine
#4
of 7 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,139,724 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 79th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,035 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 384,323 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 7 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 3 of them.
