ArticleJournal of traditional and complementary medicine2025
Electroacupuncture improves cardiac function in hyperlipidemic rats by enhancing efferocytosis in myocardial macrophages via the PPARγ-LXRα-MerTK pathway.
Article in Journal of traditional and complementary medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) as a mechano-metabolic transducer: coordinating lipid homeostasis through mechanical cues.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Efferocytosis: unifying pathogenic hub in metabolic disorders-mechanistic landscapes, targeted therapies and translational bottlenecks.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Biochanin A Suppresses Growth and Biofilm Formation of Fluconazole-Resistant Candida auris.Current microbiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and aim: Electroacupuncture (EA) is an effective treatment for hyperlipidemia because it decreases the protein expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and liver X receptor alpha (LXRα). Lowering blood lipids can reverse cardiac insufficiency, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We aimed to explore whether EA reduces blood lipid levels and restores cardiac function in hyperlipidemic rats and to elucidate the underlying mechanism involved. Procedures: A hyperlipidemic rat model was established by providing the animals with a high-fat diet (HFD). Animals were divided into normal control diet (NC), HFD, PPARγ siRNA, EA, and EA + PPARγ siRNA groups. H&E staining was used to observe the histopathology of the heart and liver. Transmission electron microscopy and oil red O staining were used to detect the distribution of myocardial lipid droplets and the efferocytosis of macrophages. Double immunofluorescence was used to detect the expression of ATP binding cassette transport A1 (ABCA1), ATP binding cassette transport G1 (ABCG1), PPARγ, LXR, and MER proto-oncogene tyrosine kinase (MerTK) in cardiac macrophages. The MerTK-/- rats and littermate wild-type rats were divided into NC, HFD, and EA groups. The efferocytosis rate of myocardial macrophages in different groups was detected using TUNEL and Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining. Results and conclusion: EA had positive effects on the blood lipid profile, cardiac function, and heart and liver weights; reduced fat deposition in cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes; promoted reverse cholesterol transport; and enhanced macrophage efferocytosis in HFD-fed rats. This effect was blocked by PPARγ siRNA. The protein expression of the PPARγ-LXRα-MerTK pathway was also increased by EA treatment. However, under MerTK-/- conditions, the beneficial effects of EA on efferocytosis in myocardial macrophages were blocked. EA reversed ectopic lipid deposition in the liver and heart, increased efferocytosis in myocardial macrophages, improved hyperlipidemia, and ameliorated cardiac dysfunction in HFD-fed rats through the PPARγ-LXRα-MerTK pathway.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.