Abstract
Peripheral nerve discharges, one of the physiological bases around acupoints, evoked by manual acupuncture (MA) and EA at acupoints ST-36, SP-6 and ST-25 were investigated in rats. MA at ST-36 but not at SP-6 and ST-25 evoked significant discharges from afferents innervating ST-36, and such discharges could be simulated by EA with strengths of 10-15 V. The results suggest that different effects of acupoints might be due to the different nerves innervating particular acupoints.In somatic pain treatment, EA was applied to ST-36 and BL-60 acupoints bilaterally in the hind limbs of mice with inflammatory pain in the right hind paw induced by CFA injection. The time of paw-withdrawal latency (PWL) responded to a heat source was used for judging pain intensity. It was found that both single (30 min) and repeated (14 days) EA treatments significantly shortened PWL in the CFA injected paw. There was no treatment effect applying EA at acupoints LI-10 and PL-6 in the fore limbs.In treatment of visceral pain induced by colorectal distention (CRD) stimuli in rats with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), both single and repeated EA treatments at ST-36 and ST-37 acupoints significantly inhibited abnormally increased abdominal withdrawal reflex (AWR) scores and the magnitude of electromyogram (EMG) recorded from the abdomen responded to CRD stimulation at strengths of 20, 40, 60 and 80 mmHg. The above results suggest that both somatic and visceral pain can be effectively treated by EA. (Financial support: FSMCST: 06DZ19732; 973 Program: 2005CB523306) [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S8]
