title: Expression levels of the hypothalamic AMPK gene determines the responsiveness of the rats to electroacupuncture-induced analgesia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although electroacupuncture (EA) relieves various types of pain, individual differences in the sensitivity to EA analgesia have been reported, causing experimental and clinical difficulties. Our functional genomic study using cDNA microarray identified that 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a well-known factor in the regulation of energy homeostasis, is the most highly expressed gene in the hypothalamus of the rats that were sensitive to EA analgesia ("responder"), as compared to the rats that were insensitive to EA analgesia ("non-responder"). In this study, we investigated the causal relationship between the hypothalamic AMPK and the individual variation in EA analgesia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into the responder and the non-responder groups, based on EA-induced analgesic effects in the tail flick latency (TFL) test, which measures the latency of the tail flick response elicited by radiant heat applied to the tail. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to quantify the expression levels of AMPK mRNA in the hypothalamus of the responder and non-responder rats. Further, we examined whether viral manipulation of the AMPK expression in the hypothalamus modulates EA analgesia in rats.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The real-time RT-PCR analysis showed that mRNA expression levels of AMPK in the hypothalamus of the responder rats are significantly higher than those of the non-responder rats, validating the previous microarray results. Microinjection of dominant negative (DN) AMPK adenovirus, which inhibits AMPK activity, into the rat hypothalamus significantly attenuates EA analgesia (p < 0.05), whereas wild type (WT) AMPK virus did not affect EA analgesia (p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present results demonstrated that levels of AMPK gene expression in the rat hypothalamus determine the individual differences in the sensitivity to EA analgesia. Thus, our findings provide a clinically useful evidence for the application of acupuncture or EA for analgesia.
authors: Sun Kwang
authors: SK
authors: Kim
authors: Boram
authors: B
authors: Sun
authors: Heera
authors: H
authors: Yoon
authors: Ji Hwan
authors: JH
authors: Lee
authors: Giseog
authors: G
authors: Lee
authors: Sung-Hwa
authors: SH
authors: Sohn
authors: Hyunseong
authors: H
authors: Kim
authors: Fu Shi
authors: FS
authors: Quan
authors: Insop
authors: I
authors: Shim
authors: Joohun
authors: J
authors: Ha
authors: Byung-Il
authors: BI
authors: Min
authors: Department of Physiology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 130-701 Seoul, Republic of Korea. hbae@khu.ac.kr.
authors: Hyunsu
authors: H
authors: Bae
mesh_terms: D055372:AMP-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D015671:Electroacupuncture / Q000379:methods*; D015870:Gene Expression; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000201:enzymology*; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D055372:AMP-Activated Protein Kinases