Antihypertensive effect of acupuncturing at KI3 in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Nowadays, hypertension is a major issue in public health worldwide, because it contributes to vascular and renal morbidity, cardiovascular mortality, and economic burden. Thus, many animal and clinical studies have done to find ways to the management of hypertension. Many researches have shown that acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment in antihypertensive. This study investigated the regulation effect of acupuncture at both Taixi (KI3) acupoints to the blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Eighteen SHRs were randomly divided into three groups (SHR group, KI group, non-acupoint group), six Wistar Kyoto rats(WKY) were used as normal controls. The original and 7 days´ systolic blood pressure were measured, using a computerized rat tail-cuff technique. Results: The systolic blood pressure of rats in SHR group were much higer than WKY group. The blood pressures in both KI group and non-acupoint (NON) group were decreased significantly after acupuncture (P<;0.05). Compared with the non-acupoint group, the antihypertensive effect of acupoint is more obvious(P<;0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture at Taixi (KI3) had stable antihypertensive effect in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), and is better than non-acupoint.