Table 2.

Mechanisms related to the therapeutic effects of acupuncture and electroacupuncture

Therapeutic Effects	AC or EA	Study subjects	Mechanisms	Ref
Anti-Fatigue	EA	Rats with chronic fatigue syndrome	Reducing mitochondrial oxidative stress and increasing ATP synthesis	72
Anti-insomnia	AC and EA	Insomnia in stroke patients	Reducing the sympathetic nervous activity	73
	AC	Insomnia in chronic stress rats or in maternal separation rats	Suppressing the activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis	74,75
	AC	Insomnia rats	Increasing the levels of Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and GABA(A) receptor	76
		Insomnia in anxious adult	Elevating the generation and secretion of melatonin	77
Anti- chemotherapy-associated dyspepsia syndrome (CADS)	EA	A rat model of cisplatin-induced anorexia	Increasing the secretion of ghrelin and cholecystokinin (CCK) and decreasing the secretion of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) into the serum	9,78
	EA	A rodent model of dyspepsia induced by cisplatin	Modulating the production of the vagal and gastrointestinal hormones	37
Analgesia	AC and EA	Electrical stimulation-induced tooth pulp pain in humans and monkey	Inducing endogenous opioid peptides and enhancing opioid-opioid receptor signaling	63,64
	EA	CXBK mice		65
	AC and EA	Pain induced by radiant heat exposure in rabbits		66,67
	AC	Pain in patients with fibromyalgia	Decreasing the expression of substance P	68
	AC	Pain in patients with acute herpes zoster		69
	EA	Pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis		70
	EA	Pain in an Osteoarthritis Rat Model	Enhancing response of serotonin via upregulation of serotonin receptor 2A/C	71

AC: Acupuncture; EA: Electroacupuncture.