Antihypertensive and Antihypertrophic Effects of Acupuncture at PC6 Acupoints in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats and the Underlying Mechanisms

Figure 4

Effect of EA treatment on histology of myocardial tissue. The tissue was taken after 8 weeks of EA treatment from SHR or at the same time course from WKY and stained by hematoxylin and eosin. (a) H&E stained cross-sections of rat hearts in WKY, SHR, SHR + EA, and SHR + Sham group (bar = 1000 μm). (b) Representative histology of myocardial tissue at higher magnification, indicating obvious myocyte hypertrophy, vacuolar degeneration, and inflammation cells infiltration in SHR, which were ameliorated by EA treatment (bar = 25 μm). (c) Quantitative analysis of myocyte diameter of the cross-sectional tissue slices of heart. versus WKY; versus SHR ( each group). (d) Quantitative analysis of cross-sectional area (CSA) of the cross-sectional tissue slices of heart. versus WKY; versus SHR ( each group). (e) The heart weight/body weight ratio (HW/BW ratio, mg/g) was estimated after 8 weeks of EA treatment ( each group).

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