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

• Published in: Neuroscience letters 2002-02, Vol.319 (3), p.141-144
• Main Authors: Park, Hi-Joon, Lee, Hyang-Sook, Lee, Hye-Jung, Yoo, Yeong-Min, Lee, Hee Jae, Kim, Soon Ae, Leem, Kanghyun, Kim, Ho-Chul, Seo, Jung-Chul, Kim, Ee-Hwa, Lim, Sabina, Chung, Joo-Ho
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analgesia; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Electroacupuncture; Female; Knockout; Male; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Knockout - genetics; Miscellaneous; NF-kappa B - genetics; NF-kappa B - physiology; Nuclear factor kappa B1; Pain - physiopathology; Pain Measurement; Protein Isoforms - genetics; Protein Isoforms - physiology; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Reaction Time - physiology; Tail - physiopathology; Tail-flick
• ISSN: 0304-3940; 1872-7972
• DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3940(01)02582-4

To investigate the involvement of nuclear factor kappa B1 (NF-κB1; p50/p105) in electroacupuncture (EA)-induced analgesia, 2 and 100 Hz EA stimulations were applied at acupoint ST36 (Zusanli) in NF-κB1 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-κB1+/− mice exhibited a 41.8% increase and NF-κB1−/− 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-κB1+/− and a 9.3% increase in NF-κB1−/− mice. The present findings suggest that NF-κB1 may play a crucial role in both low and high frequency EA-induced analgesic effects.