Decrease of the electroacupuncture-induced analgesic effects in nuclear factor-kappa B1 knockout mice

Abstract

To investigate the involvement of nuclear factor kappa B1 (NF-κB1; p50/p105) in electroacupuncture (EA)-induced analgesia, 2 and 100 Hz EA stimulations were applied at acupoint ST36 (Zusanli) in NF-κB1 knockout mice. EA was performed for 30 min and tail-flick latencies (TFLs) were evaluated every 15 min for 1 h. Wild-type mice displayed a 63.3% increase in TFLs compared to baseline after 2 Hz EA, whereas NF-κB1+/− mice exhibited a 41.8% increase and NF-κB1−/− mice showed only a 3.9% increase of TFLs. The TFLs of 100 Hz EA showed similar trends: a 72.6% increase of TFLs in wild-type, a 38.6% increase in NF-κB1+/− and a 9.3% increase in NF-κB1−/− mice. The present findings suggest that NF-κB1 may play a crucial role in both low and high frequency EA-induced analgesic effects.