Signal Transduction Pathways of Acupuncture for Treating Some Nervous System Diseases.

In this article, we review signal transduction pathways through which acupuncture treats nervous system diseases. We electronically searched the databases, including PubMed, MEDLINE, clinical Key, the Cochrane Library, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure from their inception to December 2018 using the following MeSH headings and keywords alone or in varied combination: acupuncture, molecular, signal transduction, genetic, cerebral ischemic injury, cerebral hemorrhagic injury, stroke, epilepsy, seizure, depression, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, vascular dementia, and Parkinson's disease. Acupuncture treats nervous system diseases by increasing the brain-derived neurotrophic factor level and involves multiple signal pathways, including p38 MAPKs, Raf/MAPK/ERK 1/2, TLR4/ERK, PI3K/AKT, AC/cAMP/PKA, ASK1-JNK/p38, and downstream CREB, JNK, m-TOR, NF-B, and Bcl-2/Bax balance.

Acupuncture and neuroregeneration in ischemic stroke.

Acupuncture is potentially beneficial for post-stroke rehabilitation and is considered a promising preventive strategy for stroke. Electroacupuncture pretreatment or treatment after ischemic stroke by using appropriate electroacupuncture parameters generates neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects that increase cerebral blood flow, regulate oxidative stress, attenuate glutamate excitotoxicity, maintain blood-brain barrier integrity, inhibit apoptosis, increase growth factor production, and induce cerebral ischemic tolerance.

The study of electroacupuncture on cerebral blood flow in rats with and without cerebral ischemia.

Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used to treat disorders of the nervous system, such as stroke. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of EA on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in cerebral ischemic rats. We developed an animal model of cerebral ischemia (CI) by occluding the blood flow of both common carotid arteries in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats; 2 or 15 Hz EA was applied to both Zusanli acupoints.

Effect of electroacupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation at Hegu (LI.4) acupuncture point on the cutaneous reflex.

Our previous studies have shown that the cerebral cortex plays a modulator role in the physiological mechanisms of acupuncture and 2Hz electroacupuncture (EA), but either acupuncture or 2Hz EA appeared to have very little effect on spinal cord. However, 2Hz or 100Hz transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) applied to Hegu acupuncture point (LI.4) can increase the amplitude of the H-reflex, whereas manual acupuncture has no similar effect.