Acupuncture for Pain Management: Molecular Mechanisms of Action.

Acupuncture for Pain Management: Molecular Mechanisms of Action. Am J Chin Med. 2020 May 15;:1-19 Authors: Chen T, Zhang WW, Chu YX, Wang YQ Abstract Acupuncture reduces pain by activating specific areas called acupoints on the patient's body. When these acupoints are fully activated, sensations of soreness, numbness, fullness, or heaviness called De qi or Te qi are felt by clinicians and patients. There are two kinds of acupuncture, manual acupuncture and electroacupuncture (EA). Compared with non-acupoints, acupoints are easily activated on the basis of their special composition of blood vessels, mast cells, and nerve fibers that mediate the acupuncture signals. In the spinal cord, EA can inhibit glial cell activation by down-regulating the chemokine CX3CL1 and increasing the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10. This inhibits P38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathways, which are associated with microglial activation of the C-Jun N-terminal kinase signaling pathway and subsequent astrocyte activation. The inactivation of spinal microglia and astrocytes mediates the immediate and long-term analgesic effects of EA, respectively. A variety of pain-related substances released by glial cells such as the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and prostaglandins such as prostaglandins E2 can also be reduced. The descending pain modulation system...
Source: The American Journal of Chinese Medicine - Category: Complementary Medicine Authors: Tags: Am J Chin Med Source Type: research