Objective To observe the effect of electroacupuncture(EA) of "Neiguan"(PC 6) and "Xinshu"(BL 15) on levels of serum total cholesterol(TC)

triglyeride(TG)

high density lipoprotein(HDL) and low-density lipoprotein(LDL) and expression of T cell CD 40 L and matrix metalloproteinases-9(MMP-9) in the coronary artery in coronary heart disease(CHD) rats

so as to reveal its mechanism underlying improvement of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease.Methods A total of 60 Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control

model

EA-pretreatment

routine EA and medication groups(n=12).Co-ronary atherosclerotic heart disease model was established by feeding the animals with high fat forage for 3 months and intrape-ritoneal injection of VD3(2 mL/kg

60 000 IU/100 g

once daily for 3 days).EA was applied to unilateral "Neiguan"(PC 6) and "Xinshu"(BL 15) once every other day for rats of the EA-pretreatment group from the 1st day of modeling on for 12 weeks

and once daily for rats of the routine EA group from successful modeling on for 2 weeks.Rats of the medication group were treated by intragastric administration of Atorvastatin 0.25 mg·kg-1·d-1 for 2 weeks.Serum TC

TG

HDL and LDL contents were detected by ELISA and the expression levels of CD 40 L and MMP-9 of the coronary artery tissue assayed by Western blot.Results Serum contents of TC

TG and LDL and expression levels of coronary arterial CD 40 L and MMP-9 in the model group were significantly higher than those of the normal control group(P<0.01)

while serum HDL content was decreased considerably in the mo-del group(P<0.01).In comparison with the model group

the contents of serum TC

TG

HDL and the expression levels of arterial CD 40 L and MMP-9 in both EA-pretreatment group and routine EA group were remarkably down-regulated(P<0.01)

and serum LDL content was obviously up-regulated(P<0.01).The effects of the EA-pretreatment group were significantly superior to those of the medication group in down-regulating the contents of serum TC

TG

HDL and decreasing the expression of coronary arterial CD 40 L and MMP-9 proteins(P<0.01

P<0.05).No significant differences were found between the EA-pretreatment and routine EA groups in all the 6 indexes(P>0.05).Conclusion Both EA-pretreatment and routine EA of PC 6 and BL 15 can down-regulate blood TC

TG and HDL contents

raise serum HDL level and suppress the increased expression of CD 40 L and MMP-9 proteins of coronary artery tissue in rats with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease

which may contribute to their effect in improving CHD.