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Contralateral electroacupuncture pretreatment suppresses carrageenan-induced inflammatory pain via the opioid-mu receptor

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Abstract

Acupuncture has been used to treat various clinical diseases in Eastern medicine. To investigate the analgesic effect of electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment on carrageenan-induced inflammatory pain, we studied on the effect of EA parameters on an animal model of acute arthritic pain. Pretreatment with 1 mA, 10 Hz EA prior to carrageenan injection under halothane anesthesia suppressed carrageenan-induced pain. Interestingly, EA stimulation of the ‘Zu-San-Li’ (ST36) acupuncture point (1 mA, 10 Hz) contralateral to the site of the carrageenan injection in the rat synovial cavity produced significantly greater improvement of the weight-bearing force compared with EA stimulation of the ‘San-Yin-Jiao’ acupuncture point. To determine how ST36 EA treatment suppresses carrageenan-induced inflammatory pain, we examined the effect of a mu opioid receptor antagonist on ST36 EA-induced analgesia. The selective antagonist of the mu opioid receptor (OR) significantly suppressed contralateral ST36 EA-induced analgesia against carrageenan-induced inflammation. These results suggested that the analgesic effect mediated by the mu OR during low-frequency contralateral EA pretreatment has an anti-nociceptive action against inflammatory pain and that it may provide a potential strategy to treat inflammatory arthritic pain.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant (Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Meridian Research Project) from the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Standard Research, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, 461-24, Jeonmin-dong, Yuseong-gu, Taejon, 305-811, Korea

    Eun Jin Yang, Yoo Sung Kim, Ji Eun Lee, Hye Suk Hwang, Myeong Soo Lee & Sun-Mi Choi

  2. School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, South Korea

    Sung Tae Koo

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  1. Eun Jin Yang
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  2. Sung Tae Koo
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Correspondence to Sun-Mi Choi.

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E. J. Yang and S. T. Koo contributed equally to this work.

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Yang, E.J., Koo, S.T., Kim, Y.S. et al. Contralateral electroacupuncture pretreatment suppresses carrageenan-induced inflammatory pain via the opioid-mu receptor. Rheumatol Int 31, 725–730 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-010-1364-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-010-1364-y

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