Xinyan Gao, Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, China

Prof. Gao Xinyan has completed her PhD from China Academy of Chinese

Medical Sciences (CACMS), and postdoctoral studies from Baptist

University of Hongkong 2009 and Medical University of Graz 2011. She is

the director of Department of Physiology, Institute of Acupuncture. She has

published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as

an editorial board for several peer reviewed journals. Her research has been

supported by National Natural Scientific Foundation of China for 4 times.

Pain relief is a puzzle. Though no possible single theory

can clarify the mechanism for acupuncture analgesia,

acupuncture analgesia is the most acceptant treatment field

clinically and basically. In recent years, we have studied the

effect of acupuncture on inhibition of C-fiber reflex or RIII

reflex as a quantitative sensory test for acute pain or chronic

pain to investigate the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia.

Based on this methodology, we investigated homotopic and

heterotopic acupuncture mediated by gate of spinal level and

diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNIC) of supraspinal level.

Additionally, we studied influential factors as caffeine and

adenosine system and mechanism of glia-mast cell crosstalk on

acupuncture analgesia. Our research demonstrated acupuncture

is characterized by irreplaceable advantages but with limitations

on pain management.

Pain Management