To examine the effectiveness of pain relief for muscle electro-acupuncture therapy (muscle-EAT), we performed a study using rats, with the adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) rat as an experimental arthritis model. Twenty-four female SD rats (6 weeks) were divided into three groups. AA rats were raised for 8 weeks as chronic pain model. Group I (AA-E) received stimulation of the quadriceps (depth 5mm) with muscle-EAT 1 HA 10 minutes, for five days. Group II (AA-N) was untreated as controls. Group III (CTL) were the normal rat controls.
After muscle-EAT stimulation, we measured the blood flow volume in the rat foot, reactive speed response to pain-related scores, and the amount of locomotor activity. The AA group showed significantly lower blood volume and locomotor activity response than the CTL group.
Moreover, sensory abnormalities caused a delayed reactive speed to heat stimulation. After muscle-EAT stimulation, Group I showed increased blood flow volume in the foot, locomotor activity and reactive speed response in pain-related scores, compared with those shown by Group II. These findings suggest that muscle-EAT is effective for relief of pain induced by chronic inflammation.

In order to examine the effectiveness of moxibustion and Goshajinkigan for diabetes we investigated using Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats and Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) rats. 18 male OLETF rats (5 weeks old) and 6 male LETO rats (5 weeks old) were divided into 4 groups. Group I rats were given trial moxibustion (BL 20, BL 23). Group II rats were administered Goshajinkigan (100mg/kg). Group III (OLETF) and IV (OLETF) rats were untreated as controls. In each group, we measured body weight (BW), blood sugar (BS), urine albumin (UA), pain-related time (PRT) and blood flow volume (BFV) before and after the experiment. Moreover, kidney and pancreas tissues were observed.
In groups I, II and III, BW, BS and UA increased in comparison with that of group IV, as the rats grew older. But groups I and II showed suppressed increases, in comparison with that of III group. After stimulation groups I and II showed reaction sensitivity, in comparison with group III. Group I showed a suppressed decrease of BFV. Tissue samples showed no serious change.
These findings suggest that moxibustion and Goshajinkigan inhibited some quantity of the progress of diabetic disease.