Different point stimulations can induce brain activity in specific regions, and however whether these stimulations affect unique neurotransmitter transmission remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of point specificity to the brain by resolving the metabolite profiles. Eighteen Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: (1) the sham group: sham acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) without electric stimulation; (2) the Zusanli (ST36) group: electroacupuncture (EA) at ST36; and (3) the Neiguan (PC6) group: EA at PC6. Then, the metabolites from rat brain samples were measured by LC–ESI–MS. The results of a partial least squares discriminant analysis revealed the differences among the sham, ST36, and PC6 groups regarding the relative content of metabolites in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and hypothalamus. EA at PC6 resulted in downregulation of adenosine, adrenaline, γ-aminobutyric acid, glycine, and glutamate majorly in hippocampus, and then in cerebral cortex. Otherwise, EA at ST6 resulted in upregulation of adrenaline and arginine in hippocampus, and all stimulations showed barely change of identified neurotransmitters in hypothalamus. These differential metabolite and neurotransmitter profiles prove that brain areas can be modulated by point specificity and may provide a maneuver to understand more details of meridian.

不同的点刺激可以诱导特定区域的大脑活动，但是这些刺激是否影响独特的神经递质传递仍然未知。因此，我们旨在通过解析代谢物谱来研究点特异性对大脑的影响。将18只Sprague-Dawley大鼠随机分为三组：（1）假手术组：在没有电刺激的情况下在足三里（ST36）进行假针灸；（2）祖三里（ST36）组：ST36的电针（EA）；（3）Neiguan（PC6）组：PC6的EA。然后，通过LC-ESI-MS测定大鼠脑样本中的代谢产物。偏最小二乘判别分析的结果显示，假手术，ST36和PC6组在大脑皮层，海马和下丘脑中代谢物的相对含量方面存在差异。PC6的EA主要导致海马然后大脑皮质中腺苷，肾上腺素，γ-氨基丁酸，甘氨酸和谷氨酸的下调。否则，在ST6的EA导致海马中的肾上腺素和精氨酸上调，所有刺激均显示下丘脑中已识别的神经递质几乎没有变化。这些不同的代谢物和神经递质谱证明，可以通过点特异性来调节大脑区域，并且可以提供一种策略以了解子午线的更多细节。