ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2017
Acupuncture Improved Neurological Recovery after Traumatic Brain Injury by Activating BDNF/TrkB Pathway.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modulation of immune responses by acupuncture at Jing-Well points in neurological disorders: exploring mechanisms and clinical applications in the era of modern electrophysiology.American journal of translational research · 2026Review
- Skin-Brain Axis: neural pathways in acupuncture treatment.Chinese medicine · 2025Review
- Exploring acupuncture as a therapeutic approach for tic disorders: a review of current understanding and potential benefits.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Review
- Acupuncture knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and health service needs after traumatic brain injury: a cross-sectional survey.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2024Article
- Can alternative medical methods evoke somatosensory responses and functional improvement?Heliyon · 2024Review
- The Role of Inhaled Estradiol and Myrtenol, Alone and in Combination, in Modulating Behavioral and Functional Outcomes Following Traumatic Experimental Brain Injury: Hemodynamic, Molecular, Histological and Behavioral Study.Neurocritical care · 2023Article
- Traumatic Brain Injury: Acupuncture Treatment.Medical acupuncture · 2023Article
- Efficacy of electroacupuncture stimulating Shenmen (HT7), Baihui (GV20), Sanyinjiao (SP6) on spatial learning and memory deficits in rats with insomnia induced by para-chlorophenylalanine: a single acupoint combined acupoints.Journal of traditional Chinese medicine = Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan · 2023Article
- Using radial pulse wave as hemodynamic measurements to quantify effects of acupuncture therapy for patients with traumatic brain injury and ischemia stroke.Journal of traditional and complementary medicine · 2022Article
- Acupuncture Treatment is Associated with Reduced Dementia Risk in Patients with Migraine: A Propensity-Score-Matched Cohort Study of Real-World Data.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2022Article
- Acupuncture Interventions for Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Cognitive Disorders: A Review of Mechanisms.Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2022Review
- Mechanism underlying treatment of ischemic stroke using acupuncture: transmission and regulation.Neural regeneration research · 2021Review
- Estrogen administration attenuates post-stroke depression by enhancing CREB/BDNF/TrkB signaling in the rat hippocampus.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2021Article
- The Role of BDNF in Experimental and Clinical Traumatic Brain Injury.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Early intervention combining Chinese and Western medicine in traumatic brain injury with diffuse axonal injury: A report of three cases.Journal of traditional and complementary medicine · 2020Article
- Bloodletting Puncture at Hand TwelveFrontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
- Acupuncture Treatment Reduces Incidence of Parkinson's Disease in Patients With Depression: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study in Taiwan.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2020Article
- BDNF Val66Met Genetic Polymorphism Results in Poor Recovery Following Repeated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in a Mouse Model and Treatment With AAV-BDNF Improves Outcomes.Frontiers in neurology · 2019Article
- Effects of Acupuncture on Neurological Disease in Clinical- and Animal-Based Research.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2019Review
- Effect of acupuncture on the TLR2/4-NF-κB signalling pathway in a rat model of traumatic brain injury.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
How to promote neural repair following traumatic brain injury (TBI) has long been an intractable problem. Although acupuncture has been demonstrated to facilitate the neurological recovery, the underlying mechanism is elusive. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) exerts substantial protective effects for neurological disorders. In this study, we found that the level of BDNF and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) was elevated spontaneously after TBI and reached up to the peak at 12 h. Nevertheless, this enhancement is quickly declined to the normal at 48 h. After combined stimulation at the acupoints of Baihui, Renzhong, Hegu, and Zusanli, we found that BDNF and TrkB were still significantly elevated at 168 h. We also observed that the downstream molecular p-Akt and p-Erk1/2 were significantly increased, suggesting that acupuncture could persistently activate the BDNF/TrkB pathway. To further verify that acupuncture improved recovery through activating BDNF/TrkB pathway, K252a (specific inhibitor of TrkB) was treated by injection stereotaxically into lateral ventricle. We observed that K252a could significantly prevent the acupuncture-induced amelioration of motor, sensation, cognition, and synaptic plasticity. These data indicated that acupuncture promoted the recovery of neurological impairment after TBI by activating BDNF/TrkB signaling pathway, providing new molecular mechanism for understanding traditional therapy of acupuncture.
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Registered trials
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