CUTANEOUS CUTTING ON MERIDIAN PRODUCING DIFFERENT EFFECT ON HANDACUPUNCTURE- AND ELECTROACUPUNCTURE-INDUCED ANALGESIA

Objective: To study whether a difference existed between handacupuncture and electroacupuncture in the pathway of information transmission. Methods: Both electroacupuncture and handacupuncture were applied to Wistar rats at bilateral Tsusanli(St), the pain thresholds before and afteracupuncture alone,be fore and after acupuncture on condition of cutaneous cutting beside stomach channel and on stomach channel were recorded. Results: Cutaneous cutting beside stomach channel did noteliminate the analgesia effect of acupuncture; cutaneous cutting on stomach channel, though having noobvious influence on electroacupuncture-induced analgesia, did significantly depress analgesia effect induced by handacupuncture. Conclusion: The pathways for electroacupuncture and handacupuncture information transmission are somehow different. It seemed that handacupuncture information mainlytransferred through skin, while electroacupuncture information transferred in deep tissues beneathskin.