Research Progress Of Acupuncture Research Articles

Research progress of acupuncture in improving pain emotion by regulating functions of anterior cingulate cortex

Pain emotion is a negative emotion caused by pain, which seriously affects the patients' physical and psychological health. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a key brain region in the occurrence and regulation of pain and painful emotion. In this paper, we summed up the relevant progress of researches on acupuncture improvement of pain emotion from neurotransmitters and receptors, cellular signaling pathways and neural circuits of ACC, in order to provide a basis for further research. 1) Acupuncture can regulate the long-term potentiation of ACC synaptic transmission by down-regulating the expression of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR)； and up-regulating the expression of μ-, delta- and κ-opioid receptors, neuropeptide S (NPS)/ NPS receptor, and the number of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons to reduce neuronal excitability, relieving pain emotion； 2) Acupuncture can regulate synaptic transmission of ACC neurons by inhibiting protein kinase Mζ (PKMζ)-GluR1 and cAMP/PKA-ERK-CREB signaling pathways, and modulate synaptic plasticity to ameliorate pain emotion； 3) Acupuncture intervention induced inhibition of rostral ACCGlu-thalamic circuit may result in relief of pain emotion but not pain sensation, whereas inhibition of the rostral ACCGlu-ventrolateral periaqueductal gray matter(vlPAG) circuit may relieve pain sensation but not pain emotion. In addition, our team found that in the treatment of painful diseases by acupuncture, the addition of "spirit-regulating" acupoints can not only improve patients' negative emotion, but also significantly relive patients' pain sensation.

Research progress of acupuncture in the regulation of surgery stress response.

In clinical practice, operative stress varies from surgeries, which may lead to many injuries such as ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), hyperactivation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS), post-traumatic immunosuppression (PTI), hypercoagulation and inflammation. Acupuncture is effective and advantageous in regulating the stress response to surgery. The great progress has been made in recent years of acupuncture research in postoperative visceral IRI, SNS hyperactivation, PTI, hypercoagulation and inflammation. By collecting the relevant evidences of acupuncture in this field, the application value of acupuncture involved in modulating surgical stress response and the progress of mechanism research are explored and summarized.

Research progress of acupuncture in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

Research progress of acupuncture in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

Research progress of acupuncture in enhanced recovery after surgery

The concept of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is based on evidence-based medicine. By optimizing the treatment measures, the stress response of the body is reduced to meet the body's metabolic changes during the perioperative period, so as to achieve the purpose of accelerating recovery. In the perioperative period, acupuncture can relieve patients' preoperative anxiety, shorten fasting time, reduce the amount of anesthetics, protect organ function, reduce postoperative pain, reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting, and speed up postoperative recovery. The addition of acupuncture intervention in ERAS would provide newmethods and new ideas for the construction of ERAS. But at present, the application of acupuncture in ERAS has problems such as lacking of overall consideration and insufficient standardization, etc.

The research progress of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of peripheral facial paralysis

The research progress of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of peripheral facial paralysis

Research progress of acupuncture in the treatment of Parkinson's disease

Research progress of acupuncture in the treatment of Parkinson's disease

Research progress of acupuncture and the related adjuvant therapy for promoting pressure ulcer healing in recent 10 years

To summarize the research progress of acupuncture-moxibustion and the related adjuvant therapy for promoting pressure ulcer healing in recent 10 years and explore the future research direction. By retrieving Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), VIP Database (VIP) and PubMed database, dated from January 2008 through to December 2017, the articles for the treatment of pressure ulcers with acupuncture-moxibustion and the related adjuvant therapy were collected. In terms of clinical research and experimental research, the research progress and the related effect mechanisms were analyzed and summarized. Through screening, 78 articles for the treatment of pressure ulcer with acupuncture-moxibustion and the adjuvant therapy were collected finally, of which, 71 articles were Chinese and 7 articles were English. The therapies with the highest frequency for pressure ulcer were the simple moxibustion or moxibusiton combined with other adjuvant measures. The local surrounding needling therapy, electroacupuncture, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and laser therapy were followed by regarding the use frequency. All of these interventions promoted the healing of pressure ulcers to different degrees. The underlying mechanisms were related to the regulation of the local blood perfusion, differentiation and migration of vascular endothelial growth factor, angiogenesis, superoxide dismutase SOD and eNOS/NO signaling pathway so as to promote tissue migration and proliferation. Acupuncture-moxibustion and the related adjuvant therapies achieve the definite therapeutic effects on pressure ulcers. The researches on the treatment of pressure ulcers at home and abroad are diversified, but it is still limited in the research on the effect mechanism.

Research progress of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometrial receptivity in recent 10 years

The research of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometrial receptivity in recent 10 years was reviewed. CNKI and PubMed databases were retrieved with "acupuncture" "moxibustion" and "endometrial receptivity" as key words. The retrieving time was from January of 2007 through December of 2016. As a result, 63 relevant papers were collected and 28 papers regarding clinical and experimental researches of acupuncture for endometrial receptivity were included into analysis. It was found that acupuncture and moxibustion could improve endometrial morphology (including the expression of pinopodes, endometrial thickness and the rate of endometrial type A), reduce the endometrial microcirculation (including endometrial pulsatility index, resistance index and hemodynamic index), increase the levels of estrogen and progesterone and the expressions of their receptors, and regulate the expression of molecular biological regulator (such as integrin, leukemia inhibitory factor, vascular endothelial growth factor and HOXA10). As a result, the endometrial receptivity was improved to provide good environment for embryo implantation and improve the pregnancy rate, which had significant advantage in the field of assisted reproductive technology. However, detections of pinopodes and integrin were invasive. Its application for clinical use had limitations. In addition, the evidence of acupuncture improving endometrial receptivity was still insufficient. By reviewing related research result, this paper further summarized and analyzed the action mechanism of acupuncture for endometrial receptivity to provide references for the clinical treatment.

Research progress of acupuncture and moxibustion in treating diabetes mellitus

This article summarizes the commonly-used acupuncture and moxibustion therapies, such as acupuncture therapy, moxibustion therapy, auriculo-acupuncture therapy, acupoint-injection therapy, electro-acupuncture therapy, acupoint-application therapy and the comprehensive therapy, in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, and explores the possible mechanisms of acupuncture and moxibustion in treating diabetes mellitus from the influence of acupuncture and moxibustion on levels of the blood sugar level, insulin, blood lipid, blood rheology, anti-peroxide, the contents of cAMP and cGMP, and the activity of Na+−K+/ATPase.

Research progress of acupuncture in treating cervical vertigo

This article summarizes the literature since 1990s. The research progress was surveyed from the perspectives of filiform needling, moxibustion, acupoint injection, acupuncture and massage, acupuncture and traction. In the treatment of cervical vertigo, acupuncture acts to dilate blood vessels, diminish vessel resistance and increase blood flow, hence to improve micro-circulation and oxygen supply to the brain.