Figure 5

Effect of EA on RTX-induced sprouting of myelinated afferent fibers in the spinal lamina II. A, Representative images show CTB immunoreactive myelinated fibers in the spinal dorsal horn of vehicle (a), RTX (b), RTX plus 2 Hz EA (c), RTX plus 15 Hz EA (d), RTX plus 100 Hz EA (e), and RTX plus sham EA (f) groups. Right side is the medial side of dorsal horn in all the images. Scale bar, 50 μm. Dotted line marks the division separating lamina II and III. Asterisk, sprouting of myelinated fibers in lamina II. B, Summary data show the area of CTB-labeled afferent terminals in lamina II in different groups. Data are expressed as means ± SEM (n = 3 rats in each group). *P < 0.05, compared with the vehicle group; # P < 0.05, compared with the sham EA group.