Therapeutic effect of acupuncture in BALB/c model of cutaneous leishmaniasis

Mahshid Shakibapour; Mohsen Mahmoodi; Shervin Ghaffari Hoseini; Fatemeh Rostami; Marjan Mansurian; Reza Jafari; Shahrokh Izadi; Sorour Charehdar; Seyed Hossein Hejazi

doi:10.4103/2277-9175.153904

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Year : 2015 | Volume : 4 | Issue : 1 | Page : 77

Therapeutic effect of acupuncture in BALB/c model of cutaneous leishmaniasis

Mahshid Shakibapour¹, Mohsen Mahmoodi², Shervin Ghaffari Hoseini³, Fatemeh Rostami⁴, Marjan Mansurian⁵, Reza Jafari⁶, Shahrokh Izadi², Sorour Charehdar², Seyed Hossein Hejazi⁷
¹ Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
² Department of Parasitology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
³ Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
⁴ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatics, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
⁶ National Institute of Health Research, Health Research Station, Isfahan, Iran
⁷ Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Correspondence Address:
Seyed Hossein Hejazi
Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Skin Diseases and Leishmaniasis Research Center, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan
Iran

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

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DOI: 10.4103/2277-9175.153904

Background: Current research findings demonstrate that acupuncture, a traditional Chinese medicine, has beneficial effects on several acute and chronic infectious and inflammatory diseases. Acupuncture promotes tissue healing and regulates immune response in various disease conditions. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a parasitic disease caused by protozoan from genus Leishmania. Acupuncture is supposed to accelerate healing of CL because of common mechanisms involved in the cure of the CL lesions. Materials and Methods: 60 BALB/c mice were experimentally infected with L. major strain MRHO/IR/75/ER and divided into three groups: (1) Treatment group received acupuncture 2 times a week for 5 weeks (10 sessions) with intraperitoneal diazepam as a sedative agent. (2) Diazepam control group only received diazepam the same as the treatment group. (3) Control group did not receive any intervention. Size of the lesions was measured before the experiment, on session 5 and 10 and 4 weeks after the experiment. Parasite burden was evaluated by microscopic assay as well as quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction technique. Results: Size of the lesions decreased significantly on session 5 in treated group in comparison with session 0 (P = 0.02) while the size of the lesions increased significantly in two control groups on session 5 and 4 weeks after treatment (P = 0.04 and P = 0.01 respectively). Mean parasite burden did not show a significant difference between or within groups on session 0 and 10 by any methods. Conclusions: This investigation showed that acupuncture decreased size of the CL lesions by session 5 in the BALB/c mice model, but did not cause a significant reduction in parasite burden.

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