Selective Plasticity of Hippocampal Sub‐Regions in the Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment After Acupuncture

作者：Jinhuan Zhang, Bin Yan, Yongfeng Liu, Ting Liu, Liyu Hu, Xiaohui Zhan, Xinbei Li, Chengcheng Zhu, Jinping Xu, Haibo Yu · 发表于：Brain and Behavior · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1002/brb3.70748 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies、Neurological Disease Mechanisms and Treatments、Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing cognitive decline in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Hippocampal atrophy has been typically reported as a core neuromechanism in the aMCI. However, whether and how hippocampal subregions plasticity exists in aMCI after acupuncture remains largely unknown. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to explore gray matter alterations in the hippocampal subregions of aMCI after acupuncture. METHODS: A randomized, controlled, blind research was conducted. A cohort of 53 patients with aMCI was randomly assigned to either the verum acupuncture (VA) group or the sham acupuncture (SA) group. Each group received 24 treatment sessions (three times per week for 8 weeks). Clinical evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed at baseline and after treatment for all patients with aMCI. Hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed using Freesurfer 7.1.1. An interaction effect was used to explore the efficacy of acupuncture. In addition, a correlation analysis was performed to investigate the relationships between the volume of hippocampal subregions and cognitive function in patients with aMCI. RESULTS: Mixed-effects analysis revealed a significant group × time interaction for volume in the right subiculum body (p = 0.006), where volume significantly decreased following SA (p = 0.015) but increased following VA. Within-group effects showed that VA significantly increased volume in the right GC-ML-DG...