Decrease of the electroacupuncture-induced analgesic effects in nuclear factor-kappa B1 knockout mice

Neurosci Lett. 2002 Feb 22;319(3):141-4. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3940(01)02582-4.

Abstract

To investigate the involvement of nuclear factor kappa B1 (NF-kappaB1; p50/p105) in electroacupuncture (EA)-induced analgesia, 2 and 100 Hz EA stimulations were applied at acupoint ST36 (Zusanli) in NF-kappaB1 knockout mice. EA was performed for 30 min and tail-flick latencies (TFLs) were evaluated every 15 min for 1 h. Wild-type mice displayed a 63.3% increase in TFLs compared to baseline after 2 Hz EA, whereas NF-kappaB1+/- mice exhibited a 41.8% increase and NF-kappaB1-/- mice showed only a 3.9% increase of TFLs. The TFLs of 100 Hz EA showed similar trends: a 72.6% increase of TFLs in wild-type, a 38.6% increase in NF-kappaB1+/- and a 9.3% increase in NF-kappaB1-/- mice. The present findings suggest that NF-kappaB1 may play a crucial role in both low and high frequency EA-induced analgesic effects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Analgesia*
  • Animals
  • Electroacupuncture*
  • Female
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Knockout / genetics
  • NF-kappa B / genetics
  • NF-kappa B / physiology*
  • Pain / physiopathology
  • Pain Measurement
  • Protein Isoforms / genetics
  • Protein Isoforms / physiology
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Tail / physiopathology

Substances

  • NF-kappa B
  • Protein Isoforms