Institute of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Meridian, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011;2011. doi: 10.1155/2011/290489. Epub 2010 Sep 14.
Acupuncture is emerging as an alternative therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the molecular mechanism underlying this beneficial effect of acupuncture has not been fully understood. Here, we demonstrated that electroacupuncture at acupoints Zusanli (ST36), Xuanzhong (GB39); and Shenshu (BL23) markedly decreased the paw swelling and the histologic scores of inflammation in the synovial tissue, and reduced the body weight loss in an adjuvant-induced arthritis rat model. However, the electrical stimulation at nonacupoint did not produce any beneficial effects against the experimental arthritis. Most interestingly, the electroacupuncture treatment resulted in an enhanced immunostaining for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), a potent anti-inflammatory neuropeptide, in the synovial tissue. Moreover, the VIP-immunostaining intensity was significantly negatively correlated with the scores of inflammation in the synovial tissue (r = -0.483, P = .0026). In conclusion, these findings suggest that electroacupuncture may offer therapeutic benefits for the treatment of RA, at least partially through the induction of VIP expression.
针刺作为类风湿关节炎（RA）的一种替代疗法正在兴起。然而，针刺这种有益效果的分子机制尚未完全阐明。在这里，我们证明了针刺穴位足三里（ST36）、悬钟（GB39）和肾俞（BL23）可以显著减轻佐剂诱导性关节炎大鼠模型的爪肿胀和滑膜组织炎症的组织学评分，并减轻体重减轻。然而，非穴位电刺激对实验性关节炎没有产生任何有益效果。最有趣的是，电针治疗导致血管活性肠肽（VIP）的免疫染色增强，VIP 是一种有效的抗炎神经肽，在滑膜组织中。此外，VIP 免疫染色强度与滑膜组织炎症评分呈显著负相关（r = -0.483，P =.0026）。总之，这些发现表明，电针可能通过诱导 VIP 表达为 RA 的治疗提供治疗益处。
