| 21695393 |
Acupuncture alleviates the affective dimension of pain in a rat model of inflammatory hyperalgesia. |
Neurochem Res. 2011 Nov;36(11):2104-10. doi: 10.1007/s11064-011-0534-y. Epub 2011 Jun 22. |
2011 Nov |
Although studies demonstrate that electroacupuncture (EA) alleviates the sensory dimension of pain, they have not addressed EA's effect on the affective dimension. An inflammatory pain rat model, produced by a complete Freund adjuvant (CFA) injection into the hind paw, was combined with a conditioned place avoidance test to determine EA's effects and its underpinning mechanism on the affective dimension of pain. CFA-injected rats showed place aversion, i.e. the affective dimension of pain, by spending less time in a pain-paired compartment after conditioning than before, while saline-injected rats did not. CFA rats given EA treatment at GB30 before a post-conditioning test showed no aversion to the pain-paired compartment, indicating that EA inhibited the affective response. Intra-rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) administration of a kappa-, but not mu-opioid receptor antagonist, blocked EA action. These data demonstrate that EA activates opioid receptors in the rACC to inhibit the affective dimension of pain."
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