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Review
. 2019 Aug 21:13:38.
doi: 10.3389/fnint.2019.00038. eCollection 2019.

The Involvement of Descending Pain Inhibitory System in Electroacupuncture-Induced Analgesia

Qiuyi Lv  1 , Fengzhi Wu  2 , Xiulun Gan  3 , Xueqin Yang  3 , Ling Zhou  1 , Jie Chen  1 , Yinjia He  1 , Rong Zhang  1 , Bixiu Zhu  4 , Lanying Liu  4
Affiliations
Review

The Involvement of Descending Pain Inhibitory System in Electroacupuncture-Induced Analgesia

Qiuyi Lv et al. Front Integr Neurosci. .

Abstract

Chronic pain is a major health problem, which can impair quality of life and reduce productivity. Electroacupuncture (EA), a modality of medicine based on the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), presents great therapeutic effects on chronic pain. Its clinical application has gained increasing popularity, and in parallel, more research has been performed on the mechanisms of EA-induced analgesia. The past decades have seen enormous advances both in neuronal circuitry of needle-insertion and in its molecular mechanism. EA may block pain by activating the descending pain inhibitory system, which originates in the brainstem and terminates at the spinal cord. This review article synthesizes corresponding studies to elucidate how EA alleviate pain via the mediation of this descending system. Much emphasis has been put on the implication of descending serotonergic and noradrenergic pathways in the process of pain modulation. Also, other important transmitters and supraspinal regions related to analgesic effects of EA have been demonstrated. Finally, it should be noticed that there exist some shortcomings involved in the animal experimental designed for EA, which account for conflicting results obtained by different studies.

Keywords: analgesia; descending pain inhibitory system; electroacupuncture; noradrenaline (NA); serotonin (5-HT).

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