The effects of electroacupuncture stimulation on p38MAPK in rat model of diabetic neuropathic pain

YANG Huan; ZHENG Xiao-lan; LUO Zhen-zhong

Abstract：Objective To investigate the effects of electroacupuncture stimulation on analgesic for diabetic neuro -pathic pain in rats.Methods A total of 128 male adult SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (n=32):diabetic neuropathic pain model group ( Group D ) and electroacupuncture stimulation group ( Group EA ) , sham EA stimulation group ( Group E) , and sham acupuncture point group ( Group A) .The changes of mechanical shrinkage threshold , weight and blood glucose on the day before acupuncture stimulation and 7 days, 14 days, 21 days after electroacupuncture stimu-lation were recorded.Eight random rats from each group were sacrificed for L 4-6 spinal cord to inspect p38MAPK ex-pression levels in the spinal cord .The correlation between pain threshold and p 38 MAPK expression were analyzed .Re-sults Compared with Group D, E and A, significantly higher point thresholds were observed in Group EA at T 2, T3, and T4 (P<0.05).Compared with Group D, E and A, significantly p38 MAPK activation levels were observed in Group EA at T2, T3 and T4 (P<0.05).Pearson correlation coefficient for pain threshold and p 38 MAPK was -0.942.Conclu-sion Electroacupuncture can improve the pain threshold in DNP rats , the mechanism may be related to the inhibition of microglia p38MAPK expression in spinal cord .