ReviewMuscles (Basel, Switzerland)2026
Immunomodulatory Effects of Acupuncture on Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Review in Muscles (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMusculoskeletal pain remains a major cause of disability worldwide, encompassing disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA) and chronic back pain. Acupuncture and dry needling are increasingly used for symptom management, yet their effects on inflammatory modulation remain unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the influence of acupuncture on inflammatory biomarker regulation in musculoskeletal pain.
methodsFollowing PRISMA and Cochrane methodological guidelines, comprehensive searches were conducted across MEDLINE (via PubMed), Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Google Scholar, and OpenEvidence from inception to August 2025. Eligible studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving acupuncture or dry needling interventions with inflammatory biomarker outcomes. Screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment using ROB2 were performed by two reviewers independently. The certainty of evidence was appraised using GRADE criteria. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251011831).
resultsNineteen RCTs and one randomized cross-over study (
conclusionsA moderate level of GRADE evidence suggests that modified acupuncture may be more effective than standard acupuncture in reducing TNF-α levels in patients with OA. Further high-quality biomarker-based RCTs are warranted to confirm these findings. This study received no external funding.
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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.