The activation of adenosine A1 receptors is important for protecting against ischemic brain injury and pretreatment with electroacu-puncture has been shown to mitigate ischemic brain insult. hTe aim of this study was to test whether the adenosine A1 receptor mediates electroacupuncture pretreatment-induced neuroprotection against ischemic brain injury. We ifrst performed 30 minutes of electroacu-puncture pretreatment at theBaihui acupoint (GV20), delivered with a current of 1 mA, a frequency of 2/15 Hz, and a depth of 1 mm. High-performance liquid chromatography found that adenosine triphosphate and adenosine levels peaked in the cerebral cortex at 15 minutes and 120 minutes atfer electroacupuncture pretreatment, respectively. We further examined the effect of 15 or 120 minutes electroacupuncture treatment on ischemic brain injury in a rat middle cerebral artery-occlusion model. We found that at 24 hours reper-fusion,120 minutes atfer electroacupuncture pretreatment, but not for 15 minutes, signiifcantly reduced behavioral deifcits and infarct volumes. Last, we demonstrated that the protective effect gained by 120 minutes atfer electroacupuncture treatment before ischemic injury was abolished by pretreatment with the A1-receptor antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (1 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). Our results suggest that pretreatment with electroacupuncture at theBaihui acupoint elicits protection against transient cerebral ischemiavia action at adenosine A1 receptors.