Fig. 3

Effect of acupuncture on cerebral ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Experiments were performed at 72 h after the reperfusion in the ipsilateral and contralateral brain tissues. a The protein levels of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), transcription factor 6 (ATF-6), PKR-like ER kinase (PERK), phosphorylated PERK (p-PERK), inositol-requiring protein 1 (IRE1), phosphorylated IRE1 (p-IRE1), α unit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2α), phosphorylated eIF2α (p-eIF2α), transcription factor 4 (ATF-4), and C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP) in brain tissues were detected by western blotting assay. β-actin was used as an internal control. b–h The relative abundance of the protein bands was calculated and shown. Results represent at least three independent experiments. Each experimental result was presented as mean ± standard deviation (n = 6). ^##P < 0.01, ^###P < 0.001 versus the indicated group