Long-term acupuncture treatment has a multi-targeting regulation on multiple brain regions in rats with Alzheimer's disease: a positron emission tomography study.

The acute effect of acupuncture on Alzheimer's disease, i.e., on brain activation during treatment, has been reported. However, the effect of long-term acupuncture on brain activation in Alzheimer's disease is unclear. Therefore, in this study, we performed long-term needling at Zusanli (ST36) or a sham point (1.5 mm lateral to ST36) in a rat Alzheimer's disease model, for 30 minutes, once per day, for 30 days. The rats underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography scanning. Positron emission tomography images were processed with SPM2. The brain areas activated after needling at ST36 included the left hippocampus, the left orbital cortex, the left infralimbic cortex, the left olfactory cortex, the left cerebellum and the left pons. In the sham-point group, the activated regions were similar to those in the ST36 group. However, the ST36 group showed greater activation in the cerebellum and pons than the sham-point group. These findings suggest that long-term acupuncture treatment has targeted regulatory effects on multiple brain regions in rats with Alzheimer's disease.

Cerebral Targeting of Acupuncture at Combined Acupoints in Treating Essential Hypertension: An Rs-fMRI Study and Curative Effect Evidence.

The study attempted to explore that the synergistic effect of acupoints combination is not a simple superposition of single acupoint's effect by comparing and analyzing the changes of blood pressure (BP), SF-36, and brain regions after acupuncture treatment. 47 patients were randomly divided into LR3+KI3 group, LR3 group, and KI3 group. Subjects received Rs-fMRI scan, BP measurement, and SF-36 questionnaires before and after treatment and short-term acupuncture treatment. After treatment, there were no significant differences in BP and SF-36 among 3 groups, compared to the case before treatment, SBP of 3 groups decreased, and DBP significantly decreased while vitality and mental health significantly increased in LR3+KI3 group. Both number and scopes of changes of brain regions in LR3+KI3 group were the largest, which mainly included BAs 3, 4, 8, 19, 21, 24, 32, 44, and 45. In conclusion, acupuncture at LR3+KI3 may auxiliarily reduce BP and improve the vitality and mental health of patients, and the changes of brain regions were related to somatesthesia, movement, vision, audition, emotion and mood, language, memory, etc. BAs 4, 9, 10, 24, 31, 32, and 46 may be the targeting brain areas of acupuncture in assisting hypotension. It is suggested that acupoints combination of LR3+KI3 maybe generates a synergistic effect, and it is not simple sum of single acupoint effect.