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Acupuncture therapy has a positive effect in the treatment of amblyopia. This article summarizes findings of the research on brain mechanisms underlying the regulatory effect of acupuncture on visual plasticity of amblyopia. In a multi-system and multi-level viewpoints, we elaborated brain mechanism underlying the regulatory effect of acupuncture on visual plasticity in amblyopia from the perspective of ultrastructure, plasticity, electrical activities, neural coding and visual microcirculation of the neurons of the visual cortex, and the targeting points from the visual center to the effector organ.

Acupuncture has been found effective for the treatment of amblyopia, and its mechanism has been investigated. A review of recently published research results indicated that when used to treat amblyopia, acupuncture induced changes in the action of neurotransmitters in the visual system, promoted the secretion and synthesis of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and stimulated the expression of genes related to visual plasticity.

In the present paper, the authors introduce a newly-developed "Acupuncture Needle Manipulation Training-evaluation System" based on optical motion capture technique. It is composed of two parts, sensor and software, and overcomes some shortages of mechanical motion capture technique. This device is able to analyze the data of operations of the pressing-hand and needle-insertion hand during acupuncture performance and its software contains personal computer (PC) version, Android version, and Internetwork Operating System (IOS) Apple version. It is competent in recording and analyzing information of any ope-rator's needling manipulations, and is quite helpful for teachers in teaching, training and examining students in clinical practice.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of cervical spondylosis by needle-knife treatment according to the correlated literature of RCT,to compare advantages of needle-knife treatment., Methods: Randomized Controlled Trials about needle-knife treatment of cervical spondylosis were indexed from Chinese HowNet (CNKI) and Wanfang (WF) from 2000 to 2012, then were analyzed the efficacy by Review Manager 5.1 software., Results: A total of 13 RCT literatures and 1 419 patients were included. The methods of included studies were poor in quality evaluation because of large sample and multi-center RCT studies was lacked, randomization method was not accurate enough, diagnostic criteria and efficacy evaluation were various, only four studies described long-term efficacy, most of the literature didn't describe the adverse event and fall off,all studies did not use the blind method. The Meta analysis outcome showed overall efficiency of needle-knife therapy was better than acupuncture and traction. Needle-knife therapy compared with Acupuncture, the total RR = 0.19, 95% confidence interval was (0.15, 0.24), P < 0.000.01. Compared with traction therapy the total RR = 1.30, 95% confidence intervalwas (1.18,1.42), P < 0.00001., Conclusion: Compared with acupuncture therapy,the overall effectiveness of needle-knife therapy is higher;compared with traction therapy, although,needle-knife therapy has a high overall effectiveness, but because of the loss of total sample size, the outcome RCT researches to confirm.

Objective: To explore electrophysiology mechanism of acupuncture for treatment and prevention of visual deprivation effect., Methods: Eighteen healthy 15-day Evans rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group and an acupuncture group, 6 rats in each one. Deprivation amblyopia model was established by monocular eyelid suture in the model group and acupuncture group. Acupuncture was applied at "Jingming" (BL 1), "Chengqi" (ST 1), "Qiuhou" (EX-HN 7) and "Cuanzhu" (BL 2) in the acupuncture group. The bilateral acupoints were selected alternately, one side for a day, and totally 14 days were required. The effect of acupuncture on visual evoked potential in different spatial frequencies was observed., Methods: Under three different kinds of spatial frequencies of 2 X 2, 4 X 4 and 8 X 8, compared with normal group, there was obvious visual deprivation effect in the model group where P1 peak latency was delayed (P<0.01) while N1 -P1 amplitude value was decreased (P<0.01). Compared with model group, P1 peak latency was obviously ahead of time (P<0.01) while N1-P1 amplitude value was increased (P<0.01) in the acupuncture group, there was no statistical significance compared with normal group (P>0.05). Under spatial frequency of 4 X 4, N1-P1 amplitude value was maximum in the normal group and acupuncture group. With this spatial frequency the rat's eye had best resolving ability, indicating it could be the best spatial frequency for rat visual system., Conclusion: The visual system has obvious electrophysiology plasticity in sensitive period. Acupuncture treatment could adjust visual deprivation-induced suppression and slow of visual response in order to antagonism deprivation effect.

Objective: To observe the effect of acupuncture of "Zusanli" [ST 36, Ho (Sea)-acupoint] and "Zhongwan" (CV 12, front Mu-acupoint) on the expression of hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) mRNA and SP mRNA in stress-induced gastric ulcer (GU) rats., Methods: Sixty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into normal control group, simple bundling group, GU model group, CV 12 group, ST 36 group and CV 12 + ST 36 (Ho- and front Mu-acupoint combination) group, with 10 cases in each group. GU model was established by binding the rat's four limbs to an animal board and to immerse it to cool water for 24 h. Manual acupuncture stimulation was applied to CV 12, bilateral ST 36 or CV 12 + ST 36 for 20 min, once daily for 2 days. The GU index was evaluated by using Guth's method (1979). GnRH mRNA and SP mRNA expression of the hypothalamus tissue was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)., Results: Compared with the normal group, the GU index values in the simple bundling group and the model group were significantly higher (P < 0.01); while in comparison with the model group, the GU index values were significantly decreased in the CV 12, ST 36 and CV 12 + ST 36 groups (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Following stress stimulation, hypothalamic GnRH mRNA expression levels in the simple bundling group and the model group were remarkably increased (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), whereas those of hypothalamic SP mRNA expression had no apparent changes in these two groups (P > 0.05). After manual acupuncture intervention, hypothalamic GnRH mRNA expression levels in the CV 12, ST 36 and CV 12 + ST 36 groups were evidently down-regulated and SP mRNA expression levels in the ST 36 and CV 12+ ST 36 groups were remarkably upregulated in comparison with the model group (P < 0.01). No significant differences were found between the CV 12 and ST 36 groups in the GU index, among the CV 12, ST 36 and CV 12 + ST 36 groups in GnRH mRNA expression, and between the CV 12 and model groups in the expression levels of SP mRNA (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: Acupuncture of CV 12 and ST 36 can relieve stress-induced gastric ulcer in the rat, which is closely with its effect in down-regulating hypothalamic GnRH mRNA expression.

Objective: To probe into effects of acupuncture on rehabilitation of nervous functions in the stroke patient of different OCSP types., Methods: The stroke patients were randomly divided into 4 subtypes (LACI, TACI, PACI, POCI) based on the OCSP clinical classification. The patients of every subtype were randomly sub-divided into an observation group and a control group. The patients in the 2 groups were treated with routine western medicine, and acupuncture at Baihui (GV 20), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Taixi (KI 3), Xuehai (SP 10), etc. were added with reinforcing and reducing manipulation in the observation group and without manipulation of the needle in the control group. They were assessed with daily living ability scale (BI) at the time of enrollment, the end of 1, 3, 6, 12 months after the stroke, respectively., Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups for BI in LACI (P>0.05); there were significant differences 3, 6 and 12 months after the stroke between the two groups in PACI, POCI (P<0.05); in the TACI, there was a significant difference between the two groups for BI 3 and 6 months after stroke (P<0.05), with no significant difference 12 months after stroke (P>0.05)., Conclusion: Acupuncture has different effects on rehabilitation of daily living function in the stroke patient of different OCSP types.