Objective To investigate protective effects of electroacupuncture on injury of lipid peroxidation-induced by liver ischemia in rats with sepsis.Methods Forty-eight male SD rats were subjected to sepsis by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP),and were randomly divided into a sham operation group (group A),a CLP model group (group B),a CLP model plus electroacupuncture (EA) at Zúsānlǐ (足三里 ST 36) group (group C),a CLP model plus electroacupuncture at a sham acupoint group (group D),a CLP model with vagotomy group (group E) and a CLP model plus electroacupuncture group after vagotomy (group F),with 8 rats in each group.CLP was performed after abdominal vagotomy in group E and group F.EA (2 mA,2/100 Hz) was applied at bilateral "Zúsānlǐ" (足三里 ST 36) in group C and group F,and at sham acupoints in group D,respectively,for 1 hour.The hepatic blood flow (HBF) was detected by a laser-doppler flowmetry at 6 hours after CLP.The activity of plasma alanine transarninase (ALT) was determined;contents of hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA),activity of xanthine oxidase (XOD) and the rate of water content in the hepati tissue were assessed,respectively.Results Hepatic blood flow was (56.97±11.95) U in group C,which was significantly lower than (80.12± 19.57) U shown in group A,but higher than (42.61±10.97) U in group B,(44.53±9.23) U in group D,(30.05 ±4.46) U in group E and (30.46±6.38) U in group F (all P0.05) at 6 hours after CLP.Meanwhile,the levels of MDA,XOD,ALT and hepatic water content in group C were all significantly higher than those in group A,but lower than those in the other four groups (all P0.05).The levels of MDA,XOD,ALT and hepatic water content in group E and group F were all significantly higher than those in group D (all P0.05),while their hepatic blood flow were lower than that in group D (both P0.05),and no significant differences were found in all the indices mentioned above between group