Objective To explore the effects of electroacupuncture(EA) on metabolic patterns of the prefrontal cortex in rats with acute myocardial ischemia. Methods Eighteen SD rats were randomly divided into sham group

model group and EA group

with 6 rats in each group. Rats in the model and EA groups were subject to acute myocardial ischemia by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. For the EA group

EA stimulation(1 mA

2 Hz/15 Hz

30 min) was applied to “Shenmen”(HT7)-“Tongli”(HT5) once a day for 3 consecutive days. The histopathological changes of myocardial tissue and levels of ischemia modified albumin(IMA) in serum were determined by HE staining and ELISA

respectively. The LC-MS/MS technique was used to characterize the metabolic profiling of the prefrontal cortex. The differentially expressed metabolites were screened by principal component analysis(PCA) and partial least squares-linear discriminant analysis(PLS-LDA)

and subsequently Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG) metabolic pathway enrichment analysis was performed. Results Compared with the sham group

the myocardial fibers were disordered and fractured

and content of serum IMA was significantly increased in the model group(P<0.01)

which

however

were significantly decreased in the EA group(P<0.01). With PCA and PLS-LDA

there were 18 differential metabolites between the model and sham groups. Forty-eight differential metabolites were emerged between the EA and model groups. Three metabolites associated to the sphingolipid metabolism were reversed by EA stimulation

as indicated by KEGG. Conclusion The molecular mechanism of EA against myocardial ischemia is partially mediated by regulating sphingolipid-related metabolites in the prefrontal cortex.