Peripheral or central nerve injury often leads to neuropathic pain, a chronic condition that can manifest behaviorally as spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia and allodynia, and which also results in neurological dysfunction. Acupuncture has been used to treat neuropathic pain for a long time, but its mechanisms of action remain unknown. Ziyong Ju and team from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China investigated the expression of ephrin-Bs/EphBs in the spinal dorsal horn using rat models of neuropathic pain, and first verified that acupuncture for neuropathic pain and the recovery of neurological function are associated with the activation of ephrin-B/EphB signaling, indicating a potential mechanism of action for acupuncture in improving pain and repairing injured nerves. This new information, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 25, 2013), may improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the effects of acupuncture on neuropathic injury and pain.
Article: "Molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of acupuncture on neuropathic pain" by Ziyong Ju1, Huashun Cui2, Xiaohui Guo1, Huayuan Yang1, Jinsen He1, Ke Wang3 (1 College of Acumox and Tuina, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China; 2 Department of Acupuncture, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China; 3 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China)
Ju ZY, Cui HS, Guo XH, Yang HY, He JS, Wang K. Molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of acupuncture on neuropathic pain. Neural Regen Res. 2013;8(25):2350-2359.
Contact: Meng Zhao
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Journal
Neural Regeneration Research