[Systematic review on the animal experiments of electroacupuncture for hyperlipidemia combined with atherosclerosis]

To systematically review the effectiveness and safety of electroacupuncture (EA) on hyperlipidemia combined with atherosclerosis in animal experiments.

The relevant animal experiments of EA treatment for hyperlipidemia combined with atherosclerosis were retrieved from the CNKI, WANFANG, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library up to March 19, 2018 since the establishment of databases. Two researchers in the project team screened the literature and extracted the information such as experiment objects, experiment steps and experiment results separately. The literature assessment was evaluated. Meta analysis was performed with RevMan 5.3 software.

Eventually, 29 eligible experimental researches were included and the average score in the quality assessment was 5.1, at the moderate level. Meta analysis showed that compared with the model control group, after EA treatment, the levels of the total cholesterol (TC) [SMD -2.29, 95% CI (-2.94, -1.64), P<0.000 01], triglyceride (TG) [SMD -1.30, 95% CI (-1.76, -0.84), P<0.000 01] and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) [SMD -2.64, 95% CI (-3.29, -1.99), P<0.000 01] were significantly reduced and the level of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) [SMD 0.55, 95% CI (0.06, 1.04), P =0.03] was increased, indicating the significant differences.

On the base of the current limited evidences, EA significantly reduces the levels of TC, TG and LDL-C and slightly increases the level of HDL-C in the animal models of hyperlipidemia combined with atherosclerosis.