中国结合医学杂志（英文版）Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine

Author Name	Affiliation	E-mail
PAN Fan, Steven Wong, XIAN Si-tong
YU Tian-yuan	Collage of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing (100029), China	yutianyuan@sina.com

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Abstract:

Objective: To elucidate the mechanism of Chinese tuina in treating sciatic nerve crush injury, and to detect the levels of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), which is thought to play an important role in nerve regeneration. Methods: Thirty-two adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to sciatic nerve crush injury and 16 rats (sham-operated group) went through a sham operation. Control group was given no treatment while tuina group received tuina therapy since day 7 post-surgery. Tuina treatment was performed once a day and lasted for 20 days. The sciatic functional index was examined every 5 days during the treatment session. The rats' gastrocnemius muscles were evaluated for changes in mass and immunohistochemistry techniques were performed to detect the levels of tPA and PAI-1. Results: Tuina therapy improved the motor function of sciatic nerve injured rats (P<0.05), however, it did not increase muscle volume (P<0.05). Tuina downregulated the levels of tPA and PAI-1 (P<0.05). Conclusions: The present study implies that tuina treatment could accelerate rehabilitation of peripheral nerve injury.