Abstract

The present study was performed to determine whether the expression levels of the hypothalamic cholecystokinin (CCK) and its receptors are associated with the responsiveness to high frequency electroacupuncture (EA) analgesia in rats. EA stimulation (100 Hz, 0.5 ms pulse width, 0.2-0.3 mA) was delivered to the Zusanli (ST36) acupoint of male Sprague-Dawley rats for 20 min without anesthetics or holder restraint. The analgesic effect of EA was quantified using a tail flick latency test, and subsequently animals were allocated to responder or non-responder groups. The hypothalamus of rats in each group was dissected and RNA was purified. The mRNA expressions of CCK, and CCK-A and -B receptor were determined by real-time RT-PCR. CCK mRNA levels were not significantly different in the two groups, whereas both CCK-A and -B receptors were significantly more expressed in non-responders. These results suggest that the level of CCK receptor mRNA expression in the hypothalamus, rather than CCK mRNA, has an important relationship with the individual variations to high frequency EA analgesia in rats. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Author keywords

Acupuncture; CCK; CCK-A receptor; CCK-B receptor; Non-responder; Responder

Indexed keywords

EMTREE drug terms: cholecystokinin; cholecystokinin A receptor; cholecystokinin B receptor; messenger RNA

EMTREE medical terms: acupuncture; acupuncture analgesia; analgesia; animal experiment; article; controlled study; electroacupuncture; electrostimulation; hypothalamus; latent period; male; nonhuman; priority journal; protein expression; rat; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; RNA purification; tail flick test

MeSH: Analgesia; Animals; Electroacupuncture; Hypothalamus; Male; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptor, Cholecystokinin A; Receptor, Cholecystokinin B; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger; Sincalide
Medline is the source for the MeSH terms of this document.

Species Index: Animalia

Chemicals and CAS Registry Numbers: cholecystokinin, 9011-97-6, 93443-27-7;Receptor, Cholecystokinin A; Receptor, Cholecystokinin B; RNA, Messenger; Sincalide, 25126-32-3