Fig. 6

EA stimulation at the Baihui (GV 20) and Dazhui (GV 14) acupoints down-regulates the expression of lipocalin 2 in the hippocampus elicited by RSDS. Hippocampal tissues were collected after the behavior test. A Heat map representing the change in gene expression in the control, RSDS, and RSDS-treated with EA groups. Induced gene sets are shown in red, and repressed gene sets are shown in green. Differentially downregulated (blue spots, left panel) and upregulated (red spots, right panel) gene expression profiling with p < 0.05, in the control versus RSDS groups (B) and RSDS versus RSDS + EA groups (C) were identified using the volcano plot. Genes with -log10 (p-value) > 1.3, and fold change > 2 were selected for further analyses. mRNA expression (D) and protein expression (E) of lipocalin 2 were determined by real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. Quantitative results are presented as the mean ± SEM. One-way ANOVA with a post-hoc Tukey test was used to examine the significance of the mean. *** p < 0.001 vs. the control group. ### p < 0.001 vs. the RSDS group. ANOVA: analysis of variance, EA: electroacupuncture, PCR: polymerase chain reaction, RSDS: repeated social defeat stress, SEM: standard error of mean