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Responses of Primary Afferent Fibers to Acupuncture-Like Peripheral Stimulation at Different Frequencies: Characterization by Single-Unit Recording in Rats

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Abstract

The pain-relieving effect of acupuncture is known to involve primary afferent nerves (PANs) via their roles in signal transmission to the CNS. Using single-unit recording in rats, we characterized the generation and transmission of electrical signals in Aβ and Aδ fibers induced by acupuncture-like stimuli. Acupuncture-like signals were elicited in PANs using three techniques: manual acupuncture (MAc), emulated acupuncture (EAc), and electro-acupuncture (EA)-like peripheral electrical stimulation (PES). The discharges evoked by MAc and EAc were mostly in a burst pattern with average intra-burst and inter-burst firing rates of 90 Hz and 2 Hz, respectively. The frequency of discharges in PANs was correlated with the frequency of PES. The highest discharge frequency was 246 Hz in Aβ fibers and 180 Hz in Aδ fibers. Therefore, EA in a dense-disperse mode (at alternating frequency between 2 Hz and 15 Hz or between 2 Hz and 100 Hz) best mimics MAc. Frequencies of EA output >250 Hz appear to be obsolete for pain relief.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank JY Wei of the University of California at Los Angeles and Zhi-Qi Zhao of Fudan University for their suggestions throughout the study. Special thanks go to Hua-Yuan Yang, Yi-Ming Zhang, and Gang Xu of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for their generosity in providing equipment for emulation acupuncture. In addition, we thank Xiao-Ping Kang, Yao Huang, Chang-Xi Xu, Zhi-Jun Lv, and Zhen-Chen Liu for their help with part of the data analysis. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China (2016YFC0105501, 2019YFC1712104 and 2016YFF0202802) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81974169, 81671085 and 61527815).

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Author notes

  1. Ran Huo and Song-Ping Han have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Ran Huo, Song-Ping Han, Feng-Yu Liu, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ling-Yu Liu, Tian-Jia Song, Fu-Jun Zhai, Rong Zhang, Guo-Gang Xing & Ji-Sheng Han

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Peking University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100191, China

    Ran Huo, Song-Ping Han, Feng-Yu Liu, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ling-Yu Liu, Tian-Jia Song, Fu-Jun Zhai, Rong Zhang, Guo-Gang Xing & Ji-Sheng Han

  3. Key Laboratory for Neuroscience, Ministry of Education/National Health and Family Planning Commission, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Ran Huo, Song-Ping Han, Feng-Yu Liu, Xiao-Jing Shou, Ling-Yu Liu, Tian-Jia Song, Fu-Jun Zhai, Rong Zhang, Guo-Gang Xing & Ji-Sheng Han

  4. Department of Radiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China

    Ran Huo

  5. Department of Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine, Peking University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100191, China

    Rong Zhang & Guo-Gang Xing

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  1. Ran Huo
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Correspondence to Guo-Gang Xing or Ji-Sheng Han.

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Huo, R., Han, SP., Liu, FY. et al. Responses of Primary Afferent Fibers to Acupuncture-Like Peripheral Stimulation at Different Frequencies: Characterization by Single-Unit Recording in Rats. Neurosci. Bull. 36, 907–918 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-020-00509-3

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