The effects of acupuncture on cardiac muscle cells and blood pressure in spontaneous hypertensive rats

Acupuncture & Electro-therapeutics Research
Hung-Chien WuChih-Yang Huang

Abstract

If acupuncture is able to prevent hypertrophy of the heart, it could therefore prevent the heart from overloading and thus prevent heart failure or sudden death. We therefore studied the effects of acupuncture on blood pressure and cardiac muscle cells. Rats with spontaneous hypertension were divided into three acupuncture treatment groups and one non-treatment group. The treatment groups were classified as sham acupoint, Yanglingquan (GB. 34) and Quchi (LI. 11) groups. The measurements recorded included changes in tail pressure, femoral arterial pressure, left ventricular weight (LVW), whole heart weight (WHW), body weight (BW), LVW/BW and WHW/BW ratios and the size of the cardiac muscle cells. The results showed that femoral arterial pressure of subjects which were needled on the selected points for 3 days dropped. Acupuncture at these two acupoints seemed to improve the condition of hypertension in a short period of time. Significant changes in the femoral arterial pressure were observed in all subjects when they were treated for 6 days. In the two acupoint groups, the LVW/BW and the WHW/BW ratios did not change significantly. Cardiac muscle cells reduced in size in the Yanglingquan (GB. 34) treatment groups. This indicates ...Continue Reading

Citations

Oct 29, 2008·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Jen-Hsou LinYing-Ling Wu
Aug 4, 2009·Journal of Chiropractic Medicine·John ZhangAmy Sau
Aug 4, 2009·Journal of Chiropractic Medicine·John ZhangDerek Ng
May 2, 2015·Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology & Physiology·Sanghoon LeeKwon Sam Kim
May 18, 2016·Journal of Integrative Medicine·Yu-fang LinWei-dong Shen
Feb 9, 2018·Cardiology in Review·Yu-Ming Ni, William H Frishman
Feb 16, 2013·Acupuncture & Electro-therapeutics Research·Cinar SevercanYasemin Gündüztepe

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