A Mechanical Acupuncture Instrument for Reproducible Vibratory Stimulation of Acupuncture Points in Rats

Although manual acupuncture is widely used in experimental and clinical research, its application is limited by poor reproducibility resulting from practitioner-dependent variability in needle manipulation. To overcome this limitation, a mechanical acupuncture instrument (MAI) was developed to deliver controlled vibratory stimulation through an inserted acupuncture needle without the use of electrical current. This article presents a standardized protocol for applying MAI stimulation to the HT7 acupuncture point in rats, including animal preparation, localization of the acupuncture point, needle insertion, configuration of stimulation parameters, and behavioral assessment. Representative validation studies showed that MAI stimulation at HT7 reduced cocaine-induced locomotor activity and preferentially activated mechanoreceptor-associated A-fiber pathways. Further studies confirmed the involvement of peripheral ulnar afferents, the dorsal column pathway, and mesolimbic reward circuitry in mediating these effects. The representative results presented in this article are based on previously published validation studies using the MAI platform. This protocol provides a reproducible and quantitative method for investigating the neurophysiological mechanisms of acupuncture stimulation in experimental animal models.