Acupuncture's Effect in Induced Arthritis in Mice

This was my favorite presentation at the conference. It was convincing in that it showed decreases in different measures of inflammation and immune function after acupuncture. But what was sort of mind blowing for me was that they only used an acupoint on the back, Ming Men. None of the standard points at or around the limb in question. I never had the chance to ask the author how they picked this protocol. Might have been easier to do with unrestrained rats, but fascinating, nonetheless. Perhaps I should incorporate this is the clinic? A single point for arthritis??

Mechanisms of acupuncture's action in arthritis and immune modulation
Tadashi Hisamitsu, MD, PhD
Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
To evaluate the effects and possible mechanism of acupuncture on the arthritic disease, the influence of electro-acupuncture (EA) and Mox on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) animal was examined. DBA/1J mice were immunized with bovine type II collagen (CII). The main incidence of arthritis started about on day 30 and lasted to day 60 after the first immunization. EA stimulation or Mox, begun on day 21 simultaneously with the second immunization, was applied three times a week for 3 weeks at the acu-point equivalent to GV4 (governor vessel 4, Ming Men, Meimon). The results showed that EA and Mox delayed the onset, attenuated the severity of arthritis, and reduced the anti-collagen antibody level. Furthermore, these stimulation significantly increased serum IL-6 concentration and regulatory T cell (CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ T cell) number, and decreased splenic endogenous IL-1 β and serum prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) concentration. These data suggest that EA has an inhibitory effect on murine CIA, and the partial mechanism of its therapeutic result may be attributed to inhibiting the productions of IL-1β and PGE2 and activation of regulatory T cell. In the Oriental Medicine, reduction of the blood fluidity is one of the important pathological symptom. In the pain and stress model animal, the blood fluidity is markedly lowered like “a stagnant blood”. Increase of platelet adhesion and/or reduction of erythrocyte deformability results from sympathetic activation, increase of blood ATP level and increase of oxidative stress may have important role on this changes. EA applied several acu-points significantly improved these changes.