[Prevention and correction of stress-induced immunodeficiency by atrial electroacupuncture]

Secondary immunodeficiency characterized by a sharp decrease in the number of antibody-forming cells in the lymph organs developed in mice under conditions of an immunosuppressive effect of swim stress and hypobaric hypoxia. Auricular electroacupuncture (AEAP) preceding swim stress blocks its immunosuppressive effect completely. AEAP possesses a high preventive action and also produces a marked corrective effect in development of stress-induced immunodeficiency. For instance, AEAP applied in the productive phase of the immune response restores effectively immunocompetence of the body subjected to hypobaric stress. In applying AEAP, the coefficients of antibody-production stimulation in the cells of the lymph nodes, calculated in relation to the hypoxic control, are 3.5-4.0, which do not yield to the values recorded with the use of the most effective pharmacological immunomodulators. AEAP may be considered a promising measure for the prevention and correction of immunodeficiency caused by stress.