Fig. 4

Effects of acupuncture treatment on changes in reward signaling pathway in the brain reward regions of MC903-induced atopic dermatitis mice. Relative expression levels of plasticity-related (A, C, and E; pCREB, ΔFosB and BDNF) and DA-related (B, D, and F; TH, D1AR and pDARPP-32) proteins were determined by immunoblotting analysis of the lysates from the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), dorsal striatum (dStr), and ventral tegmental area (VTA). The abundance of the target protein was normalized to β-actin (for ΔFosB, BDNF, TH and D1AR), total CREB (for pCREB) or total DARPP-32 (for pDARPP-32) and expressed as a percentage change, relative to the NOR. NOR untreated control group, MC903 MC903-induced atopic dermatitis group, pAP MC903- and preventive acupuncture-treated group, tAP MC903- and therapeutic acupuncture-treated group, CP MC903- and acupuncture at control point (non-acupoint)-treated group. CREB cyclic AMP-response element binding protein, pCREB phospho-Ser133 CREB, BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor, TH tyrosine hydroxylase, D1AR dopamine D1 receptor,  DARPP-32 dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of 32 kDa, pDARPP-32 phospho-Thr34 DARPP-32. All data are presented as mean ± SD, n = 4 mice/group. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 vs. NOR group; ^#p < 0.05, ^##p < 0.01, ^###p < 0.001 vs. MC903 group; ^†p < 0.05, ^††p < 0.01, ^†††p < 0.001 vs. pAT group; ^‡‡p < 0.01, ^‡‡‡p < 0.001 vs. tAT group