Effects of Electroacupuncture on Expression of COX-2 in the Spinal Dorsal Horn of Arthritic Rats

Objective To investigate the expression of COX-2 protein in the spinal dorsal horn of chronic inflammatory rats and to find out whether the changes of COX-2 are involved in the mechanism of electroacupuncture(EA) analgesia.Methods The hyperalgesic score and expression of COX-2 protein in the spinal dorsal horn of rats with complete freund's adjuvant(CFA) induced-arthritis after EA treatment were detected by the behavioral test and immunohistochemistry technology and compared with those of the normal group,model group and medicine group.Results EA could decrease the hyperalgesic score significantly and repeated EA had remarkable accumulative analgesic effect;EA lowered the COX-2 immunoreactive cells obviously with accumulative treatments.Conclusion EA with Yanglingquan(GB 34) and Kunlun(BL 60) acupoints had remarkable analgesic effect on arthritic rats;At the same time,the COX-2 immunoreactive cells in the spinal dorsal horn could be inhibited obviously by EA.