Figure 2
Repetitive EA treatment in cold-induced hypertension (CIH).
Cold exposure increased systolic blood pressure (SBP; Panel A), diastolic blood pressure (DBP; Panel B) and heart rate (HR; Panel C) after four weeks and induced sustained hypertension by six weeks. BPs and HRs of rats in the hypertension and sham-EA groups remained elevated at 11 weeks. In contrast, elevated SBP and DBP, but not HR in the EA group was reduced after six sessions of EA and remained low throughout EA treatment. BPs and HR of normotensive rats remained stable. SBP and DBP of EA-treated CIH rats, although beginning to return to pre-treatment levels were still significantly reduced for three days following termination of EA compared to sham-EA. Note that the numbers of sham-EA, EA and normotensive rats respectively were reduced to 6, 9, and 6 rats at 72 h after termination of treatments. Values represent means ± SEM. ^, * and # indicate P < 0.05 compared with sham-EA, CIH and normotensive controls, respectively.
