The Literatures on mechanism of acupuncture from the aspect of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathways are analyzed in this paper. And the result shows that many acupuncture effects are closely related with the regulation of MAPK signal transduction pathway. However, the current studies only cover limited aspects, and there problems still existed in the experiment designation. Acupuncture and electroacupuncture are often adopted for the treatment group, while moxibustion is not applied for most of them. There are not unified wave model, frequency and stimulation period for electroacupuncture. And the studies still remain in simple confirmation and proper inference. In the future, the domain of researches should be further wid ened and the experiment designation further perfected. Therefore, the therapeutic effect of acupuncture in clinic will be greatly improved through researches on MAPK signal transduction pathway and the production mechanism of acupuncture effect.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Animals ; Humans ; MAP Kinase Signaling System ; Moxibustion