Acupuncture May Stimulate Anticancer Immunity via Activation of Natural Killer Cells

Table 1

Changes of CD16⁺ and CD56⁺ NK cells in peripheral blood following acupuncture.

Timing of measurement	CD16^+ (%)	CD56^+ (%)
Before acupuncture	0.8  ±  0.2	5.8  ±  0.7
First day after acupuncture	1.6  ±  0.3*	7.5  ±  1.0*
Second day after acupuncture	2.2  ±  0.5*	8.5  ±  1.5*
Eighth day after acupuncture	2.1  ±  0.4*	11.2  ±  1.8**

Data are means  ±  SD. Blood samples were drawn from the forearm vein with a syringe containing heparin in 17 healthy volunteers aged 21–51 years who received one acupuncture treatment on August 10, 2005. The mononuclear blood cells were separated, stained with fluorescent conjugated monoclonal antibodies and analyzed with fluorescence-activated cell sorter. Table adopted from Yamaguchi et al. [39].
* 𝑃<.05, **𝑃<.01: statistical significance of differences of the results compared with baseline levels.