Fig. 8

Acupuncture inhibited autophagy via regulating endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in cerebral ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury. The expression of LC3 (red) in contralateral and ipsilateral brain regions of cortex (a, b), hippocampus (c, d), and striatum (e, f) at 72 h after reperfusion was observed by immunofluorescence staining. The nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). Scale bars, 50 μm. g The protein levels of LC3I/II, Beclin-1, and p62 in brain tissues were detected by Western blotting assay. β-actin was used as an internal control. h–j 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 < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01, ^###P < 0.001 versus the indicated group