Previously, we had reported that the electrical stimulation of peripheral nerve with stimlatory parameters of 20 V strength and 2 Hz frequency for 60 min resulted in reducing the pain reaction. The present study was performed to evaluate if the pain reaction was affected by the peripheral nerve stimulation with different stimulatory parameters in the decerebrated cat. The flexion reflex was used as an index of the pain reaction. The reflex was elicited by stimulating the sural nerve (stimulus strength of 20 V X 0.5 msec) and recorded as a compound action potential from the motor nerve innervated to the posterior biceps femoris muscle. The common perneal nerve was selected as a peripheral nerve on which the electrical stimulation of various intensities and frequencies was applied. The results are summarized as follows : 1) The peripheral nerve stimulation with 100 mV strength, regardless of frequencies, did not affect the pain reaction induced by the sural nerve stimulation. 2) When the stimulus of 1V intensity and slow frequency (2 Hz) was applied to the peripheral nerve for 30 min or 60 min, the pain reaction was significantly reduced comparing to the control. However, this reduced pain reaction by the peripheral nerve stimulation was not reversed by the injection of naloxone (0.02 mg/kg) 3) High frequency stimulus (60 Hz) of 1V intensity for 30 or 60 min did not show any effects of affecting the pain reaction. These results suggest that the stimulus of relatively high intensity (at least 1V) and low frequency (2 Hz) is needed to elicite the analgesic effect by the peripheral nerve stimulation. By the 1V stimulus, Aδ nerve fiber is activated. Therefore, an Aδ or smaller nerve fibers must be activated for showing analgesia by the peripheral nerve stimulation. However, the mechanism of analgesia by the Aδ nerve activation alone was not related to the endogeneous morphine system since the reduced pain reaction by the Aδ fiber activation alone was not reversed by the treatment of naloxone.
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