Neuropathic pain is one of the common chronic syndromes in clinical practice.It has been demonstrated that the chronic neuropathic pain and glial cells in the central nervous system are closely related to each other.When inducing analgesic effect in neuropathic pain

EA suppressed OX-42 labeled activation of microgliacytes in dorsal horns of the spinal cord

downregulated release of nitric oxide(NO)

expression of P 2X4 receptor

intracellular mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)

extracellular regulated protein kinases(ERK)

proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β

IL-6

TNF-α

interferon(IF)-γand up-regulated neurotrophin-3expression in neuropathic pain rats.In regard to spinal astrocytes

acupuncture suppressed peripheral nerve injury induced activation of GFAP-labeled astrocytes

down-regulated the expression levels of macrophage inflammatory proteins(MIP)-1

MIP-1β

MIP-3α

TNF-αmRNA and IL-1βmRNA

etc.in the dorsal horns of the spinal cord.Up to now

the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture in regulating activities of glia cells

and interaction between neurons and glia cells

and the related pathways in the peripheral and central systems remain unclear.The effects of some related protein and gene expressions involving in acupuncture analgesia need being confirmed by adopting different approaches.