Efficacy of auricular acupuncture on inflammatory markers and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes model of rats: In light of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway

Auricular acupuncture (AA), a method of needle stimulating at special acpoints on the ear, has being used to cure a lot of diseases or chronic conditions like diabetes. In the present study, 65 male Wistar rats were used to investigate efficacy of AA on inflammatory markers and insulin resistance in streptozotocin-induced diabetic models. The results showed that electro-acupuncture at auricular concha acupoint CO11 (EAACA) significantly decreased pro-inflammatory markers and increased IL-10 level, and these efficacies were abolished by ipsilateral vagotomy, injecting of hexamethonium or a-bungarotoxin before EAACA. Relationships between homeostasis model assessment estimate of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and TNF-a, IL-6, CRP, IL-10 were analysed respectively by Pearson coefficient. Positive correlations between HOMA-IR and different pro-inflammatory parameters, negative correlation between HOMA-IR and IL-10 were both found. These results indicated that the efficacies of EAACA on inhibiting the inflammatory response and insulin resistance could be attributed to activating the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) by AA.