Wound healing effect of acupuncture through activating angiogenesis in mice

In East Asian countries, acupuncture is used to treat wounds; however, the therapeutic mechanism is not well established. In this study, the effects of acupuncture on wound healing and the therapeutic mechanism was investigated in C57BL/6 mice. A 4-mm biopsy punch was used to create four full-thickness wounds on the dorsum of the mice on BL48 and BL51. The wound healing effects were compared in three groups after wounding; an untreated group was used as the negative control, and acupuncture-treated (on BL49 and BL52) and Madecassol® ointment-treated groups were used as the positive controls. The wounds were digitally photographed and the wound size was measured daily until 10 days after wounding. The wound closure was quantified using CANVAS 7SE software. The wound tissues were collected at 24 h and 48 h after wounding for the PCR analysis of VEGF, TGF-β1, and bFGF expression. The wounds in the acupuncture-treated group closed more rapidly than in the other groups, and at 6 days after wounding, a statistically significant difference was observed. The expression of VEGF mRNA (F(3, 23) = 18.47, P < 0.0001) and TGF-β1 mRNA (F(3, 21) = 8.547, P = 0.0007) in the acupuncture-treated group was increased at 48 h after wounding. The expression of bFGF mRNA (F(3, 24) = 5.398, P = 0.0055) was increased in the acupuncture-treated group; however, compared with the untreated group, the difference was not statistically significant. Therefore, acupuncture accelerated the wound healing via the activation of angiogenic growth factors.