The Different Effects Of Acupuncture And Moxibustion On The AA Rat’s Pain Threshold And The Concentrations Of Potassium In The Local Zusanli Point

Objective:To investigate the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on the AA rat’s pain threshold and the concentrations of potassium in the local tissue of Zusanli point. We want to explore the different effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on pain threshold and potassium ions, so as to lay some foundation for exploring the local mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion in the late research.Methods:Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) was applied to induce adjuvant arthritis (AA) rats. We take the Von Frey filaments to measure the pain threshold before, during and after delivering30minutes of conventional acupuncture and moxibustion separately in the Zusanli point in rats. The microdialysates were also collected before, during and after the manipulation over a30-min period for a total of three hours. The electrolyte analyzer was utilized to analyze the local dialysates immediately. Statistical analyses were carried out with repeated measures ANOVA with the Tukey-Kramer test. Where only two groups were compared, Student’s t test was used. A value of p<0.05was considered statistically significant.Results:The pain threshold increased after the acupuncture or moxibustion treatment in the both pathological and physiological status(p<0.05).The concentration of extracellular potassium ions in the physiological and pathological status showed significant increase after the acupuncture or moxibustion treatment(p<0.05). In the physiological status, the pain threshold of acupuncture was higher than the moxibustion (p<0.05);the concentration of extracellular potassium ions of moxibustion was higher than acupuncture (p<0.05). In the pathological status,all the pain threshold and the concentration of extracellular potassium ions of moxibustion was higher than acupuncture (p<0.05).Conclusion:Acupuncture and moxibustion could increase the pain threshold of rats under both the physiological and pathological status. The effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on pain threshold and potassium ions is a slight difference. In the normal rats, the pain threshold of acupuncture was higher than the moxibustion;while the concentration of extracellular potassium ions of moxibustion was higher than acupuncture.In the AA model rats, the concentration of extracellular potassium ions of moxibustion was higher than acupuncture.