Acupuncture in Medicine最新文献

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the evidence for the impact of dry needling (DN) on hip pain and function.

Methods: Medline/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched systematically through June 2022 for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) investigating the impact of DN on hip pain and function. Version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2) was used to assess risk of bias. Descriptive analysis was conducted to explain the outcomes and adverse events of DN in hip joint diseases. Meta-analysis was not feasible due to significant heterogeneity.

Results: A total of seven eligible studies (including 273 patients) were included out of 2152 screened records. Five studies were in participants with hip osteoarthritis (OA; n = 3), greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS; n = 1) or piriformis syndrome (n = 1); the other two studies were conducted in healthy athletes (n = 2). Two articles assessed changes in participants' short-term visual analog scale (VAS) scores (<1 week), one of which showed that DN significantly reduced pain (P < 0.05). One-week VAS scores were analyzed in three studies, all of which demonstrated reduced scores following DN (P < 0.05). Hip range of motion (ROM) and muscle force were also improved following DN. No serious side effects were reported.

Conclusion: DN may be safe and effective at relieving hip pain and improving hip function. DN performs significantly better than several different types of control intervention (including sham DN, no treatment, corticosteroid injections and laser). Strong evidence (high degree of certainty around the results) is lacking, and future studies should ideally use longer follow-up periods and larger sample sizes.

Review registration number: CRD42022297845 (PROSPERO).

Background: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of low-frequency electroacupuncture (EA) on glucose and lipid disturbances in a rat model of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) characterized by insulin resistance (IR) and hepatic steatosis.

Methods: The PCOS rat model was induced by continuous administration of letrozole (LET) combined with a high-fat diet (HFD). Female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into the following four groups: control, control + EA, LET + HFD and LET + HFD + EA. EA was administered five or six times a week with a maximum of 20 treatment sessions. Body weight, estrous cyclicity, hormonal status, glucose and insulin tolerance, lipid profiles, liver inflammation factors, liver morphology and changes in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K)/Akt (protein kinase B) pathway were evaluated.

Results: The rat model presented anovulatory cycles, increased body weight, elevated testosterone, abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism, IR, liver inflammation, hepatic steatosis and dysregulation of the insulin-mediated PI3-K/Akt signaling axis. EA reduced fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, area under the curve for glucose, homeostasis model assessment of IR indices, triglycerides and free fatty acids, and alleviated hepatic steatosis. Furthermore, low-frequency EA downregulated mRNA expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6, upregulated mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-α, increased protein expression of phosphorylated (p)-Akt (Ser473), p-glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) 3β (Ser9) and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), increased the ratio of p-GSK3β to GSK3β and downregulated protein expression of GSK3β.

Conclusion: An obese PCOS rat model with IR and hepatic steatosis was successfully established by the combination of LET and HFD. EA improved dysfunctional glucose and lipid metabolism in this PCOS-IR rat model, and the molecular mechanism appeared to involve regulation of the expression of key molecules of the PI3-K/Akt insulin signaling pathway in the liver.

Objective: To investigate the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at ST36 on intestinal microflora and plasma metabolites in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), to provide a theoretical basis and guidance for the clinical treatment of T2DM by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Methods: Sixteen T2DM db/db mice were randomly divided into treatment (T, n = 8) and model (M, n = 8) groups, and a further eight normal db/m+ mice reared under the same conditions served as a non-diabetic control group (C, n = 8). The general conditions of mice were observed weekly. After obtaining blood and stool samples, the mice were euthanized. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) was measured using a glucometer and fasting insulin (FINS) was measured in plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Liver and colon tissues were embedded in paraffin and subjected to hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to observe pathological changes in these tissues. In addition, 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequencing was performed to analyze changes in the intestinal flora and metabolomics was employed to assess changes in metabolites in the blood.

Results: EA significantly reduced FBG and FINS levels and alleviated pathological damage to the liver and colon. Furthermore, EA increased intestinal community richness and diversity by decreasing the relative abundance of Clostridium and incresasing the relative abundance of Lactobacillus. EA also reduced D-fructose levels in T2DM mice according to plasma metabolomics.

Conclusion: EA has a positive regulatory effect on the intestinal flora and can regulate blood glucose and improve insulin resistance in T2DM model mice.

Background: Neurogenic bladder (NB) is a form of neurological bladder dysfunction characterized by excessive contraction of the bladder detrusor. Protein kinase A (PKA) signaling is involved in the contraction of the detrusor muscle.

Aims: To investigate whether PKA signaling mediates the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on the excessive contraction of the bladder detrusor in NB.

Methods: Sixty rats were randomly divided into control, sham, NB, NB + EA, and NB + EA + H89 (a PKA receptor antagonist) groups. The modified Hassan Shaker spinal cord transection method was used to generate a NB model. After EA intervention for one week, urodynamic tests were used to evaluate bladder function, hematoxylin and eosin staining was conducted to assess morphological changes, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to measure the concentration of PKA, and Western blotting was conducted to measure the protein levels of phosphorylated myosin light chain kinase (p-MLCK)/p-MLC.

Results: The results showed that NB resulted in morphological disruption, impairment of urodynamics, and decreases in the concentration of PKA and the protein levels of p-MLCK/p-MLC. EA reversed the changes induced by NB dysfunction. However, the improvement in urodynamics and the increases in the concentration of PKA and the protein levels of p-MLCK/p-MLC were inhibited by H89.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the PKA signaling pathway mediates the beneficial effect of EA on excessive contraction of the bladder detrusor in a rat model of NB.