Electroacupuncture alleviates complete Freund's adjuvant peripheral chronic inflammatory pain in mice / 中国针灸

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To probe into the law of acupuncture analgesic effect and specificities of acupoint action.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Adult male Kunming mice were randomly divided into a control group, a model group, a model plus electroacupuncture (EA) group and a model plus sham EA group. Chronic inflammatory pain model was prepared by injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) into right posterior foot, and paw withdrawing latency (PWL) induced by radiation heat was used as pain threshold index, and changes of PWL in all the groups were investigated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After modeling, PWL significantly shortened on the inflammatory side (P < 0.05); EA at bilateral "Zusanli" (ST 36) and "Kunlun" (BL 60) could significantly reverse the shortened PWL (P < 0.05), and this effect was prolonged along with increase of EA times, but in the sham EA group PWL did not significantly change; EA at bilateral "Shousanli" (LI 10) and Neiguan" (PC 6) could not reverse the shortened PWL (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Analgesic effect of EA is strengthened along with increase of EA times and shows specificity of acupoints to a certain extent.</p>