scholarly journals Electroacupuncture Pretreatment at GB20 Exerts Antinociceptive Effects via Peripheral and Central Serotonin Mechanism in Conscious Migraine Rats

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Liu ◽  
Pei Pei ◽  
Luo-Peng Zhao ◽  
Zheng-Yang Qu ◽  
Yu-Pu Zhu ◽  
...  

Background. While electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment in migraine has been found to attenuate pain and frequencies of attacks, the underlying mechanism of its antinociceptive effect remains poorly understood. Emerging evidence suggests that the serotonin system may be involved in migraine pathophysiology.Method. Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to Control, Model, EA, and sham acupuncture (SA) groups. HomeCageScan was used to measure the effects on spontaneous nociceptive behaviors. Radioimmunoassay and high-performance liquid chromatography were used to evaluate the expression of 5-hydroxytryptamine (HT) in the plasma and three-key structure of the descending pain modulatory system.Results. Our study showed that EA pretreatment could produce a significant reduction in resting, freezing, and grooming behavior and a significant increase in exploration behavior. Furthermore, we found that the level of 5-HT in plasma was significantly increased, and it was significantly decreased in the descending pain modulatory system in Model group. The aforementioned results were significantly reversed in EA group; that is, the level of 5-HT was increased in the rostroventromedial medulla (RVM) and trigeminal nucleus caudalis (TNC) region and decreased in the plasma.Conclusion. EA pretreatment exerts antinociceptive effects in a rat model of recurrent migraine, possibly via modulation of the serotonin system.

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (6) ◽  
pp. 1356-1364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas O. Lilius ◽  
Pekka V. Rauhala ◽  
Oleg Kambur ◽  
Eija A. Kalso

Background Opioid analgesics are effective in relieving chronic pain, but they have serious adverse effects, including development of tolerance and dependence. Ibudilast, an inhibitor of glial activation and cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases, has shown potential in the treatment of neuropathic pain and opioid withdrawal. Because glial cell activation could also be involved in the development of opioid tolerance in rats, the authors studied the antinociceptive effects of ibudilast and morphine in different models of coadministration. Methods Antinociception was assessed using male Sprague- Dawley rats in hot plate and tail-flick tests. The effects of ibudilast on acute morphine-induced antinociception, induction of morphine tolerance, and established morphine tolerance were studied. Results Systemic ibudilast produced modest dose-related antinociception and decreased locomotor activity at the studied doses of 2.5-22.5 mg/kg. The highest tested dose of 22.5 mg/kg produced 52% of the maximum possible effect in the tail-flick test. It had an additive antinociceptive effect when combined with systemic morphine. Coadministration of ibudilast with morphine did not attenuate the development of morphine tolerance. However, in morphine-tolerant rats, ibudilast partly restored morphine-induced antinociception. Conclusions Ibudilast produces modest antinociception, and it is effective in restoring but not in preventing morphine tolerance. The mechanisms of the effects of ibudilast should be better understood before it is considered for clinical use.


Amino Acids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomohisa Yoshimura ◽  
Yuki Inokuchi ◽  
Chikako Mutou ◽  
Takanobu Sakurai ◽  
Tohru Nagahama ◽  
...  

AbstractTaurine, a sulfur-containing amino acid, occurs at high concentrations in the skin, and plays a role in maintaining the homeostasis of the skin. We investigated the effects of aging on the content and localization of taurine in the skin of mice and rats. Taurine was extracted from the skin samples of hairless mice and Sprague Dawley rats, and the taurine content of the skin was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results of the investigation revealed that the taurine content in both the dermis and epidermis of hairless mice declined significantly with age. Similar age-related decline in the skin taurine content was also observed in rats. In contrast, the taurine content in the sole remained unchanged with age. An immunohistochemical analysis also revealed a decreased skin taurine content in aged animals compared with younger animals, although no significant differences in the localization of taurine were observed between the two age groups. Supplementation of the drinking water of aged mice with 3% (w/v) taurine for 4 weeks increased the taurine content of the epidermis, but not the dermis. The present study showed for the first time that the taurine content of the skin decreased with age in mice and rats, which may be related to the impairment of the skin homeostasis observed with aging. The decreased taurine content of the epidermis in aged animals was able to be rescued by taurine supplementation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal A El-Bakary ◽  
Sahar A El-Dakrory ◽  
Sohayla M Attalla ◽  
Nawal A Hasanein ◽  
Hala A Malek

Methanol poisoning is a hazardous intoxication characterized by visual impairment and formic acidemia. The therapy for methanol poisoning is alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) inhibitors to prevent formate accumulation. Ranitidine has been considered to be an inhibitor of both gastric alcohol and hepatic aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes. This study aimed at testing ranitidine as an antidote for methanol acute toxicity and comparing it with ethanol and 4-methyl pyrazole (4-MP). This study was conducted on 48 Sprague-Dawley rats, divided into 6 groups, with 8 rats in each group (one negative control group [C1], two positive control groups [C2, C3] and three test groups [1, 2 and 3]). C2, C3 and all test groups were exposed to nitrous oxide by inhalation, then, C3 group was given methanol (3 g/kg orally). The three test groups 1, 2 and 3 were given ethanol (0.5 g/kg orally), 4-MP (15 mg/kg intraperitoneally) and ranitidine (30 mg/kg intraperitoneally), respectively, 4 hours after giving methanol. Rats were sacrificed and heparinized, cardiac blood samples were collected for blood pH and bicarbonate. Non-heparinized blood samples were collected for formate levels by high performance liquid chromatography. Eye balls were enucleated for histological examination of the retina. Ranitidine corrected metabolic acidosis (p = .025), decreased formate levels (p = .014) and improved the histological findings in the retina induced by acute methanol toxicity.


1995 ◽  
Vol 268 (6) ◽  
pp. E1065-E1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Yamashita ◽  
D. N. Darlington ◽  
E. J. Weeks ◽  
R. O. Jones ◽  
D. S. Gann

Large hemorrhage leads to hypercoagulability, a phenomenon that has never been well explained. Because an elevation of plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 increases procoagulant activity, we have determined whether plasma PAI activity and tissue PAI-1 mRNA are elevated after hemorrhage. Sprague-Dawley rats were bled (20 or 15 ml/kg) 4 days after cannulation. Plasma PAI activity was determined by the capacity of plasma to inhibit tissue-type plasminogen activator activity. Changes of PAI-1 mRNA in various tissues were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography after reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction. Hemorrhage (20 ml/kg) significantly elevated plasma PAI activity at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h after hemorrhage and PAI-1 mRNA in liver at 1, 2, 4, and 6 h after hemorrhage. The PAI-1 message was also significantly elevated in lung, heart, and kidney at 4 h after hemorrhage. The increases of PAI-1 mRNA after 20 ml/kg hemorrhage were significantly greater than those after 15 ml/kg hemorrhage. These findings indicate that large hemorrhage can induce the increases in PAI activity and PAI-1 message and suggest that induction of PAI-1 may be involved in the thrombogenic responses observed after large hemorrhage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingxing Zhuang ◽  
Li Zhou ◽  
Renhua Miao ◽  
Shoudong Ni ◽  
Meng Li

Introduction:: Asari Radix et Rhizoma (ARR) and dried ginger (Zingiber officinalis) (DG) are often used together in drug preparations in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat respiratory diseases including cold, bronchitis and pneumonia. Previous studies suggested that ARR and/or DG may influence the pharmacokinetics of other herbal components. In the current study, we examined pharmacokinetic interactions between ARR and DG in rats after oral administration. Methods:: We developed a method based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to simultaneously measure serum concentrations of two active components each in ARR (L-asarinin and sesamin) and DG (6-gingerol and 6-shogaol). Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were starved overnight, then given ARR extract, DO extract, or a co-decoction of ARR and DG by gastric gavage (6 g raw material per kg body weight; n = 6 per group). Blood samples were collected prior to drug administration and at the following times (h) afterward: 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 12.0 and 24.0. Pharmacokinetic parameters were compared using Student’s t test for independent samples. Results:: A simple, rapid, sensitive analytical method has been developed to detect four bioactive components simultaneously in the ARR-DG herbal pair. Pharmacokinetic parameters including Cmax, Tmax, T1/2 and AUC(0~t) were calculated using the non-compartmental model with the DAS 2.0 pharmacokinetic software. For L-asarinin, Tmax was 2.00 ± 0.00 h in ARR animals and 1.67±0.26 h in ARR-DG animals (P<0.05), T1/2 was 8.58 ± 1.75 h in ARR and 11.93 ± 2.13 h in ARR-DG (P<0.05). For 6-gingerol, Cmax was 350.48 ± 23.85 ng/mL in DG animals and 300.21 ± 20.02 ng/mL in ARR-DG (P<0.01), Tmax was 2.83 ± 0.41 h in DG and 2.17 ± 0.41 h in ARR-DG (P<0.05) and AUC(0~t) was 1.93 ± 0.15 mg/mL•h in ARR and 1.70 ± 0.15 mg/mL•h in ARR-DG (P<0.05). For 6-shogaol, Cmax was 390.28 ± 26.02 ng/mL in DG animals and 455.63 ± 31.01 ng/mL in ARR-DG (P<0.01), Tmax was 2.93 ± 0.10 h in DG and 1.92 ± 0.10 h in ARR-DG (P<0.01), T1/2 was 3.74 ± 0.29 h in DG and 3.28 ± 0.22 h in ARR-DG (P<0.01), and AUC(0~t) was 2.15 ± 0.18 mg/mL•h in DG and 2.73 ± 0.15 mg/mL•h in ARR-DG (P<0.01). Conclusions:: Pharmacokinetic interations between ARR and DG decrease Tmax, increase T1/2 but do not affect overall bioavailability of L-asarinin in ARR. The interactions in ARR-DG decrease Cmax and Tmax but increase T1/2 and AUC(0~t) of 6-gingerol in DG. The interactions increase Cmax and AUC(0~t) but decrease Tmax and T1/2 of 6- shogaol in DG. Interactions in ARR-DG do not affect the pharmacokinetics of sesamin.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Junjie Liu ◽  
Sheng Gao ◽  
Weili Lin ◽  
Pengrong Gao ◽  
...  

Qishen granules (QSG) are a famous formula with cardioprotective properties to heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanism of QSG on apoptosis and fibrosis in the treatment of HF. HF model was induced by left anterior descending artery ligation on Sprague-Dawley rats. Transcriptome analysis was used to investigate the regulatory pathways of QSG on HF. Interestingly, downregulated genes of QSG were significantly enriched in Hippo pathway which plays a crucial role in regulating cell apoptosis and proliferation. We found that QSG inhibited the expressions of proapoptotic key proteins P-53 and fibrosis-related proteins TGF-β1, SMAD3, and CTGF. Further, we conducted research on the key proteins in the Hippo pathway upstream of CTGF and P-53. The results showed that MST1, P-MST1, P-LATS1, and RASSF1A that exert proapoptotic function were downregulated after QSG intervention. Similarly, P-YAP and P-TAZ, mediating self-degradation and apoptosis, were both observably decreased after QSG administration. Taken together, QSG are shown to be likely to exert cardioprotective effects by inhibiting the progression of apoptosis and fibrosis through Hippo pathway.


ISRN Pain ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Claudio Laurido ◽  
José L. Martínez ◽  
Francisco Morales

The NMDA receptor is central in the generation and maintenance of chronic pain. This receptor has several sites of modulation. One is the glutamate recognition site that can be blocked by (±)-3-(2-carboxypiperazin-yl)propyl-1-phosphoric acid or (±)-CPP. We investigated whether the effect of glial inhibition produced by propentophylline (PPF) can be enhanced when combined with (±)-CPP. We used Sprague-Dawley rats with experimental monoarthritis, administering intrathecally the ED30 for both drugs (3.97 μg of (±)-CPP and 1.42 μg of PPF), since this combination produces an antinociceptive supra-additive effect when used in mechanical nociception (Randall-Selitto test). The combination of (±)-PPF and CPP produced an antinociceptive effect which was greater than that each drug alone as tested by both the C reflex and windup. We conclude that the antinociceptive effect of the combination of (±)-PPF and CPP possibly generates a supra additive interaction type in monoarthritic rats.


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