<p style="text-align: center;">DU Lin, TAN Cheng-fu, WANG Chao, TANG Yani, CHEM Meilin, LIU Weiwei, FENG Guo, SONG Jin,LI Jiao-lan</p><p style="text-align: center;">(College of Accu-moxibustion and Massage, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha 410007, China)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Abstract:&nbsp; Objective:&nbsp; T o observe the effect of acupuncture preconditioning on myocardial LC&nbsp; 3 protein expression&nbsp; of autophagy in myocardial ischemia rats, to investigate whether acupuncture preconditioning on myocardial ischemia by improving myocardial autophagy and the ability to play similar protective effect on&nbsp; heart ischemicpreconditioning.&nbsp; Methods:&nbsp; A&nbsp; total&nbsp; of&nbsp; 40&nbsp; SD&nbsp; rats&nbsp; were&nbsp; randomly&nbsp; divided&nbsp; into&nbsp; sham operation group, model group, ischemic pretreatment(IP)group, EA group and moxibustion group, (n=8 in each).EA and Moxi&nbsp; pretreatment were respectively applied to bilateral “Neiguan”(PC&nbsp; 6) for 20 min, once daily&nbsp; for&nbsp; 7&nbsp; days.The&nbsp; model&nbsp; of&nbsp; myocardial&nbsp; ischemia&nbsp; was&nbsp; induced&nbsp; by&nbsp; ligation&nbsp; of&nbsp; coronary&nbsp; artery&nbsp; after pretreatment at 7 days.The pathological and ultrastructural changes of left ventricular ischemia tissue were observed under light and transmission electronic miroscope(TEM),respectively.Tunel was used to detect the apoptosis and apoptosis index of myocardial cell,and the expression of LC 3 in myocardial cells were detected by Western blot.&nbsp; Results:&nbsp; In the sham operation group, the morphology of the cardiomyocytes was incomplete, the mitochondria were complete and the autophagic vacuoles were seen. Compared with the sham&nbsp; operation&nbsp; group,&nbsp; the&nbsp; myocardial&nbsp; cells&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; model&nbsp; group&nbsp; were&nbsp; not&nbsp; complete,&nbsp; the&nbsp; disorder&nbsp; was arranged, the muscle fibers were dissolved,&nbsp; the mitochondria were enlarged, Compared with the model group, the myocardial cells in the IP group, the electroacupuncture group and the moxibustion group were less damaged, the muscle fibers were dissipated, the mitochondria were rich, the number of aut ophagic cavities&nbsp; and&nbsp; lysosomes&nbsp; increased.The&nbsp; apoptotic&nbsp; index&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; sham&nbsp; operation&nbsp; group,&nbsp; IP&nbsp; group, electroacupuncture group and moxibustion group were lower than that in the model group(P＜0.05),The apoptotic index in electroacupuncture group and moxibustion group was lower than that in IP group(P＜0.05);The ratio of expression of LC 3 II and LC 3 II/I of model group was ascended compared with sham operation group(P&lt;0.05), and the ratio of expression of LC 3 II and LC 3 II/I of EA&nbsp; group andmoxibustion group&nbsp; was declined&nbsp; compared with sham operation group(P&lt;0.05),and the ratio of expression of LC&nbsp; 3&nbsp; II and LC&nbsp; 3&nbsp; II/I&nbsp; of EA&nbsp; &nbsp;group&nbsp; was also raised compared with&nbsp; IP group(P&lt;0.05),but there was no significant difference&nbsp; in&nbsp; the&nbsp; moxibustion&nbsp; group(P&gt;0.05).&nbsp; Conclusion:&nbsp; Acupuncture&nbsp; preconditioning&nbsp; can&nbsp; produce similar&nbsp; cardioprotective&nbsp; effects&nbsp; as&nbsp; ischemic&nbsp; preconditioning,improve&nbsp; cell&nbsp; autophagy&nbsp; and&nbsp; reduce&nbsp; cell apoptosis.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Key&nbsp; words:&nbsp; Acupuncture&nbsp; and&nbsp; massage,&nbsp; Acupuncture&nbsp; pretreatment,&nbsp; Myocardial&nbsp; ischemia,&nbsp;Autophagy, LC3.</p><p><br/></p>