[Progress of experimental studies on acupuncture treatment of ischemic cerebral injury with Jing (Well)-points]

Clinical practice has demonstrated that acupuncture of Jing (Well)-points is effective in the treatment of cerebral infarction, vascular dementia and other problems induced by acute or chronic cerebral ischemia. In recent years, abundant results from animal experiments of cerebral ischemic (CI) injury have preliminarily uncovered some underlying mechanisms of acupuncture of Jing points in reducing CI injury, including 1) scavenging active free radicals, 2) decreasing calcium overloading, 3) regulating inflammation-related cytokines expression, and 4) upregulating the expression of anti-apoptosis genes. However, further studies are needed because of the complexity of the development of ischemic cerebral injury.