Background: Diabetes prevention has received increasing attention recently. Clinical and experimental studies showed that acupuncture could produce hypoglycemic effect. However, little is known about the effectiveness of acupuncture in diabetes prevention.
Aim: To investigate the preventive effects of acupuncture on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced hyperglycemia in rats.
Methods: Hyperglycemia was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg). Rats were randomly divided into six groups (no.=8 each group): control, diabetes, preventive acupuncture plus STZ injection, STZ injection plus therapeutic acupuncture, STZ injection plus preventive and therapeutic acupuncture, and preventive and therapeutic acupuncture control. Body weight, blood glucose, serum insulin, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant enzymes were measured by routine standard methods. Histological analysis of pancreatic islets was conducted.
Results: Preventive acupuncture significantly relieved hyperglycemia, insulin deficiency, weight loss, and pancreatic islet damage in rats with STZ injection; it also significantly reduced serum lipid peroxidation and enhanced superoxide dismutase in the serum and the pancreas without significantly affecting serum glutathione peroxidase and catalase. Therapeutic acupuncture exhibited a hypoglycemic effect in the late stage, but did not significantly improve other parameters.
Conclusions: These results indicate that preventive acupuncture is beneficial to the control of STZ-induced hyperglycemia in rats.