Originally immunity started as the phenomenon of preventing disease, thus it is a form of preventative medicine.
Modern immunology which is making rapid progress in the field of basic medicine, constitutes one of the various biological response systems present in the human body which define the self and non-self. It is a basic response system which maintains the biological homeostasis of the body. The immune response system is closely related with the various other biological response systems and is profoundly related with the onset and pathogenesis of diseases. It is becoming clear that acupuncture therapy brings about biochemical, phamacological and neurophysiological changes in the human body. In this study we examined immune responses due to acupuncture and the influences they exerted directly and indirectly on the immune response.

In this study we investigated the effects of electric acupuncture on in vitro functions of lymphocytes, especially mitogen responses and natural killer (NK) activities of peripheral lymphocytes from normal individuals.
Normal young adults were inserted chinese needles into two specific needle points, which were determined by means of chinese diagnostic procedures of radial arteries. The electric current were 5Hz, 2Volt for 5 minutes. There was a tendency to increase phytohaemoaggultinin (PHA) or concanavalin A (Con A) responses of lymphocytes immediatly after acupuncture, but no significant changes. However, there was a significant (p=0.05) increase of pookweed.mitogen (PWM) responses immediatly after acupuncture. NK activities were measured by a ⁵¹Cr release assays. NK activities were enhanced significantly (p=0.05) immediatry after acupuncture. Moreover these changes of mitogen responses and NK activities were shown only when stimulated at specific acupuncture points. Most prominent changes were observed immediately after acupuncture, and the changes in parts continued after 4 hours.

We investgated the effect of electric acupuncture on peripheral T lymphocyte subset from normal individuals, analysed by laser flow cytometric system with monoclonal antibodies for human T lymphocyte subset.
OKT3⁺ cells (peripheral T cells) and OKT4⁺ cells (helper/inducer cells) did not show any changes after electric acupuncture. OKT8⁺ cells (suprressor/cytotoxic T cells), however, OKT11⁺ cells (E rosette positive T cells) and Leu7⁺ cells (natural killer cells) increased and Leu11⁺ cells (another population of natural killer cells) decreased after electric acupuncture.
These changes of peripheral T lymphocyte subsets would suggest that electric acupuncture effects human immune system.

Recently it is well known that human immune system is regulated by various other biological response systems; endocrine and nervous system. We have investigated the effect of electric acupuncture on human immune system for several years. Those studies suggest that electric acupuncture affects human immune system via neuro-immune system. In the present study we investigated the effect of endorphin on human peripheral lymphocytes.
At the present concentration of endorphin and naloxone there were no effect on viability of lymphocytes. ³H-thymidine up take of unstimulated lymphocytes were suppressed by a appropriate concentration of endorphin or naloxone. The mitogenic responsiveness of peripheral lymphocytes was suppressed at usual concentration of naloxone and higher concentration of endorphin.
In these data suggested that both of intrisic and extrinsic endorphin regulated human lymphocyte responsiveness.

At the Ambulatory Clinic for Collagen Disease and Rheumatism, the Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya City University Hospital, acupuncture was performed on 8 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who satisfied all of the following requirements: (1) cases which satisfied the diagnostic criteria established by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), USA and the Ministry of Health and Welfare Study Group, Japan; (2) cases which could be followed for long periods, (3) patients who gave informed consent to acupuncture, and (4) cases which were resistant to conventional drug therapies. Severe fatigue, which is the major symptom of this syndrome, was reduced markedly by acupuncture. Accompanying physical symptoms were also reduced in some cases. Immunologically, the percentages of gamma- and delta-T cells in peripheral blood, which had been lower than normal before treatment, improved significantly after acupuncture.
These results suggest that acupuncture provides a useful means of treating chronic fatigue syndrome which has conventionally been treated using drugs alone.