Advanced Search

Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine >

2025 , Vol. 45 >Issue 2: 450 - 457

DOI: https://doi.org/10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2025.02.011

Original articles

Effect of acupuncture on brain activity in patients with decreasing ovarian reserve: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

  • Tianyu BAI ,
  • Jiaen YANG ,
  • Liang YIN ,
  • Jinling LI ,
  • Jianxian LIU ,
  • Zongchang LI ,
  • Zeming SUN ,
  • Ning JIA ,
  • Chengchao XU
Expand
  • 1 Department of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Massage, Shandong Provincial Third Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250031, China
    2 Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, People’s Hospital of Gaoming District of Foshan City, Foshan 528500, China
    3 Department of Imaging, Shandong Provincial Third Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250031, China
    4 College of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Tuina, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250355, China
    5 College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250355, China

Received date: 2023-12-22

  Accepted date: 2024-05-25

  Online published: 2025-03-10

Supported by

Innovation and Development Joint Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province: based on the Nuclear Factor-erythroid 2 Related Factor 2/AU-rich Element Antioxidant Pathway, the Effect and Mechanism of Menstrual Stimulation Acupuncture on in vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer Pregnancy Outcomes in Poor Ovarian Response Patients were Studied(ZR2022LZY008);Shandong Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine High-level Personnel Training Program Supported by Special Funds(6 [2021]);Qilu Health and Health Leading Talents Training Project(3 [2020]);Clinical Science and Technology Innovation Program of Jinan Science and Technology Bureau: Study on the Regulatory Mechanism of Menstrual Regulation and Pregnancy Promotion Acupuncture Method based on rs-functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technology on the Brain Function Network of Decreasing Ovarian Reserve Patients(202225059);Shandong Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Development Plan Project: a Multimodal Neuroimaging Study of Menstrual Stimulation Acupuncture in Patients with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome(Q-2022099);Shandong Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Development Plan Project: based on the Immunoregulation of Treg Cells, the Mechanism of Menstruation and Pregnancy Promotion Injection in the Treatment of Early-onset Ovarian Insufficiency was Explored(B-2022002)

Fold

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the variations in brain regions among individuals with decreasing ovarian reserve (DOR) compared to healthy controls using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), and to assess the immediate effects of acupuncture stimulation on these brain regions in DOR patients.

METHODS: Twenty patients diagnosed with DOR (DOR group) and twenty healthy controls (HC group) who underwent rs-fMRI scans were included. The DOR group received acupuncture and underwent a subsequent rs-fMRI scan. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) analysis was utilized to identify disparities in brain regions between DOR and HC groups, and to evaluate the immediate effects of acupuncture on DOR patients' brain regions. Common brain regions were identified as seed points for functional connectivity (FC) analysis.

RESULTS: In this study, a total of 20 HCs and 20 patients with DOR were initially enrolled. However, due to incomplete personal information, three participants were removed from the HC group. Additionally, two DOR patients experienced symptoms such as physical discomfort and shortness of breath during the MRI scan, leading to their exclusion due to excessive head movement parameters. Consequently, 17 HCs and 16 DOR patients completed the entire study protocol. Comparative analysis revealed that DOR patients exhibited increased ALFF values in the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG), while ALFF values in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were decreased compared to HCs. Following acupuncture intervention, ALFF values in the left SFG, MFG, and supplementary motor area (SMA) of DOR patients increased. Furthermore, functional connectivity (FC) analysis demonstrated increased connectivity of the left SFG with the bilateral calcarine sulcus and lingual gyrus post-acupuncture.

CONCLUSION: This study highlights abnormal neural activity in the SFG, MFG, IFG, and ACC in DOR patients compared to HCs. Acupuncture was found to regulate the activity of the SFG, bringing it closer to normal levels, and enhancing its functional connectivity with the bilateral calcarine sulcus and lingual gyrus.

Key words： acupuncture; brain activity; ovarian reserve; magnetic resonance imaging

Cite this article

Tianyu BAI , Jiaen YANG , Liang YIN , Jinling LI , Jianxian LIU , Zongchang LI , Zeming SUN , Ning JIA , Chengchao XU . Effect of acupuncture on brain activity in patients with decreasing ovarian reserve: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study[J]. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2025 , 45(2) : 450 -457 . DOI: 10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2025.02.011

References

1. Tal R, Seifer DB. Ovarian reserve testing: a user's guide. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2017; 217: 129-40.
2. Jiang M, Wang WL, Zhang JX, et al. Protective effects and possible mechanisms of actions of Bushen Cuyun recipe on diminished ovarian reserve induced by cyclophosphamide in rats. Front harmacol 2020; 13: 546.
3. Expert consensus on clinical diagnosis and treatment of ovarian reserve deficiency. J Reprod Med 2022; 31: 425-34.
4. Zhang XD, Wang G, Meng XG, et al. Molormer: a lightweight self-attention- based method focused on spatial structure of molecular graph for drug-drug interactions prediction. Briefings Bioinf 2022; 23: bbac296.
5. Pang SC, Zhang Y, Song T, Zhang XD, Wang X, Rodriguez-Patón A. AMDE: a novel attention-mechanism-based multidimensional feature encoder for drug-drug interaction prediction. Briefings Bioinf 2021; 23: bbab545.
6. Wang JM, Chu YY, Mao JS, et al. De novo molecular design with deep molecular generative models for PPI inhibitors. Briefings Bioinf 2022; 23: bbac285.
7. Li X, Han PF, Wang G, Chen WQ, Wang S, Song T. SDNN-PPI: self-attention with deep neural network effect on protein-protein interaction prediction. BMC Genomics 2022; 1: 474.
8. Zhang C, Xu X. Advancement in the treatment of diminished ovarian reserve by Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. Exp Ther Med 2016; 11: 1173-6.
9. Li XT, Xu HF, Liu BY, et al. Regulating menstruation and promoting pregnancy acupuncture therapy for regulating menstruation and promoting pregnancy in the treatment of ovarian reserve decline. J Tradit Chin Med 2018; 33: 1736-9.
10. Shi WQ, Tang LY, Lin Q, et al. Altered spontaneous brain activity patterns in diabetic patients with vitreous hemorrhage using amplitude of low frequency fluctuation: a resting state fMRI study. Mol Med Rep 2020; 22: 2291-9.
11. Mencarelli L, Menardi A, Neri F, et al. Impact of network-targeted multichannel transcranial direct current stimulation on intrinsic and network-to-network functional connectivity. J Neurosci Res 2020; 98: 1843-56.
12. Van Hees S, McMahon K, Angwin A, Greig De Z, Stephen R, David AC. A functional MRI study of the relationship between naming treatment outcomes and resting state functional connectivity in post-stroke aphasia. Hum Brain Mapp 2014; 35: 3919-31.
13. Fox MD, Raichle ME. Spontaneous fluctuations in brain activity observed with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Nat Rev Neurosci 2007; 8: 700-11.
14. Van Den Heuvel MP, Hulshoff Pol HE. Exploring the brain network: a review on resting-state fMRI functional connectivity. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2010; 20: 519-34.
15. Webber L, Davies M, Anderson R, et al. ESHRE Guideline: management of women with premature ovarian insufficiency. Hum Reprod 2016; 31: 926-37.
16. Zang YF, He Y, Zhu CZ, et al. Altered baseline brain activity in children with ADHD revealed by resting-state functional MRI. Brain Dev 2007; 29: 83-91.
17. Jin L, Yang X, Liu P, et al. Dynamic abnormalities of spontaneous brain activity in women with primary dysmenorrhea. J Pain Res 2017; 10: 699-707.
18. Liao H, Pang Y, Liu P, et al. Abnormal spontaneous brain activity in women with premenstrual syndrome revealed by regional homogeneity. Front Hum Neurosci 2017; 11: 62.
19. Kragel PA, Kano M, Van Oudenhove L, et al. Generalizable representations of pain, cognitive control, and negative emotion in medial frontal cortex. Nat Neurosci 2018; 21: 283-9.
20. Kemp AH, Griffiths K, Felmingham KL, et al. Disorder specificity despite comorbidity: resting EEG alpha asymmetry in major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Biol Psychol 2010; 85: 350-400.
21. Spironelli C, Maffei A, Romeo Z, et al. Evidence of language-related left hypofrontality in major depression: an EEG Beta band study. Sci Rep 2020; 10: 1-12.
22. Tsujimoto M, Saito T, Matsuzaki Y, Kojima R, Kawashima R. Common and distinct neural bases of multiple positive emotion regulation strategies: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Neuroimage 2022; 257: 119334.
23. Vulser H, Paillère Martinot ML, Artiges E, et al. Early variations in white matter microstructure and depression outcome in adolescents with subthreshold depression. Am J Psychiatry 2018; 175: 1255-64.
24. Cheng W, Rolls ET, Ruan H, Feng JF. Functional connectivities in the brain that mediate the association between depressive problems and sleep quality. JAMA Psychiatry 2018; 75: 1052-61.
25. Kocsis K, Holczer A, Kazinczi C, et al. Voxel-based asymmetry of the regional gray matter over the inferior temporal gyrus correlates with depressive symptoms in medicated patients with major depressive disorder. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2021; 317: 111378.
26. Chen X, Watanabe T, Kubo N, et al. Transient modulation of working memory performance and event-related potentials by transcranial static magnetic field stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Brain Sci 2021; 11: 739.
27. Zhu X, Wang K, Cao A, Zhang Y, Qiu J. Personality traits and negative affect mediate the relationship between cortical thickness of superior frontal cortex and aggressive behavior. Neurosci Lett 2020; 718: 134728.
28. Liakakis G, Nickel J, Seitz R J. Diversity of the inferior frontal gyrus--a Meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Behav Brain Res 2011; 225: 341-7.
29. Adolfi F, Couto B, Richter F, et al. Convergence of interoception, emotion, and social cognition: a twofold fMRI Meta-analysis and lesion approach. Cortex 2017; 88: 124-42.
30. Long Z, Huang J, Li B, et al. A comparative atlas-based recognition of mild cognitive impairment with voxel-based morphometry. Front Neurosci 2018; 12: 916.
31. Zheng W, Su Z, Liu X, et al. Modulation of functional activity and connectivity by acupuncture in patients with Alzheimer disease as measured by resting-state fMRI. PLoS One 2018; 13: e0196933.
Options
Outlines

/

〈 〉