VD慢性脑缺血激发了两条免疫级联效应：一条是脑内局部的免疫激活，其产生神经炎症，导致神经缺血损伤；另一条是外周免疫抑制，其削弱了机体的防御能力，导致感染发生率升高。我们认为，脑缺血--脑免疫炎症反应增强--外周免疫抑制之间存在一定联系，外周免疫抑制可能是脑缺血后的一种适应性反应，机体藉此减轻脑部炎症，但却增加了感染的易感性。 我们预实验发现，脑免疫炎症反应增强和外周免疫抑制现象在VD鼠体内共存，针刺对海马与血液中的CD4+T、CD8+T淋巴细胞数量及IL-1β和TNFα水平均具有良性调节作用。证实上述联系客观存在，也提示针刺通过调节免疫功能来发挥神经保护作用。 因此本项目拟将外周免疫抑制与脑神经炎症反应相联系，从临床和基础研究两个方面，采用流式细胞术、免疫荧光化学、分子生物学等技术，阐明针刺调控脑局部免疫激活及外周免疫抑制的效应及二者的相互作用规律，为针刺治疗VD及并发症提供新思路。

Chronic cerebral ischemia induce two immune cascades: one is the local immune activation in the brain, which produces nerve inflammation, leading to nerve ischemic injury; another one is peripheral immunosuppression, which weakens the body's defenses, leading to increased incidence of infection. So, we think that there is a certain link among cerebral ischemia, enhancing brain immune and inflammatory response and peripheral immunosuppression. Peripheral immunosuppression might be the body's adaptive response to reduce postischemic brain inflammation, but increase the susceptibility to infection. Preliminary studies found that activated brain immune and inflammatory responses and peripheral immunosuppression coexisted in VD rats. Acupuncture could positively regulate the number of CD4+T, CD8+T lymphocytes and the levels of IL-1β and TNFα in hippocampus and blood. The results confirmed that the correlation between brain immune and inflammatory responses and peripheral immunosuppression actually existed, and the effect of acupuncture treatment was closely related to the body's immune function. Therefore, the current study intends to link peripheral immunosuppression and brain inflammation, and observes the effect of acupuncture on cerebral immune activation and peripheral immunosuppression through flow cytometry, immunofluorescence chemistry and molecular biology techniques. The current study also intends to clarify the interactions of both cerebral immune activation and peripheral immunosuppression and provides experimental evidences for the mechanism of acupuncture treatment for VD.