• Wen-Li Mi, Qi-Liang Mao-Ying, Xiao-Wei Wang, Xiu Li, Chang-Jiang Yang, Jian-Wei Jiang, Jin Yu, Jun Wang, Qiong Liu, Yan-Qing Wang, and Gen-Cheng Wu.
• Department of Integrative Medicine and Neurobiology, Institute of Acupuncture Research, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
• J Pain. 2011 Sep 1;12(9):974-84.

UnlabelledAlthough electroacupuncture (EA) has been proven to effectively relieve pain associated with arthritis, the underlying mechanism of EA analgesia requires further investigation. Here, the involvement of spinal neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in EA's analgesic effects on complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced inflammatory pain was examined. The present study demonstrated that: 1) repeated EA stimulation of ipsilateral GB30 and GB34 acupoints remarkably suppressed CFA-induced hyperalgesia; 2) EA treatment markedly enhanced the upregulation of spinal NT-3 mRNA and protein levels following CFA injection; 3) antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) specifically against NT-3 intrathecally administered during EA treatment for 7 days significantly attenuated the EA analgesia; and 4) the suppressed expression of spinal GFAP (astrocytic marker), OX-42 (microglial marker) as well as proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α by EA treatment was significantly attenuated following NT-3 antisense ODN delivery. These results suggested that endogenous NT-3 may be involved in the analgesic effect of EA on inflammatory pain in rats, mediated through the inhibition of spinal glial activity as well as proinflammatory cytokine production.PerspectiveThe present study may initiate a discussion on the possible roles of NT-3/glia/cytokines in the therapeutic effects of acupuncture and provide insight on the mechanism underlie the analgesic effects of acupuncture on pain associated with arthritis.Copyright © 2011 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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