title: Neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius mediate the acupuncture analgesia in visceral pain rats.
abstract: The study investigated the role of nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) neurons in electroacupuncture (EA) analgesia in colorectal distension (CRD) rats. NTS neurons responding to both CRD test and EA conditioning stimulations were considered somato-visceral convergent neurons. The neuronal activities evoked by graded CRD showed multiple firing patterns indicating multisynaptic connections. Some of the CRD excitatory neurons were inhibited by EA and vice versa. There was no discrepancy among different acupoints in inducing the changes of unit discharges. Conclusively, EA could regulate CRD related neurons in the NTS through polysynaptic cross-talk mechanism, which mediates EA analgesia on visceral pain in anesthetized rats.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China. Electronic address: liuk@mail.cintcm.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China. Electronic address: gaoxy@mail.cintcm.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Xin-Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ben
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China; Orthopedic Hospital of Henan Province, 82 Qiming Road, Luoyang 471012, China.
authors.forename: Qing-Guang
authors.initials: QG
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Xue
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, 16 Nanxiaojie Street, Dongzhimen Nei, Beijing 100700, China. Electronic address: zhubing@mail.cintcm.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D015667:Acupuncture Analgesia; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015671:Electroacupuncture; D008297:Male; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017552:Solitary Nucleus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D059265:Visceral Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*
keywords: Acupuncture analgesia; Colorectal distension (CRD); Nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS)