Acupuncture for Female Infertility: Discussion on Action Mechanism and Application

Table 1

Characteristics of clinical studies.

First author	Year	Research type	Type of infertility	Intervention		Course of treatment	Evaluating indicator
				T	C
Andersen D	2010	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	1 time	——	CPR, PPR, LBR (−)
Moy I	2010	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	1 time	——	CPR (−)
Rashidi BH	2013	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	4 times	NHQE⬆	NRO, CPR, PPR, BPR (−)
Villahermosa DI	2013	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	4 times	CPR⬆	——
Chen Q	2015	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	12 weeks	(E2, P)⬆, EAI⬇	CPR (−)
Jiang D	2015	RCT	PCOS	Acupuncture + WM	WM	12 weeks	(CPR, ET/EM, CM)⬆, AR⬇	——
Wang X	2016	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	30 times	(CPR, EM, Menstruation)⬆	——
Zhou L	2016	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	15 ± 2 times	(E2, NRO, NHQE, CPR)⬆	——
Qu F	2017	RCT	IVF-ET	TEAS	N	2 times	(CPR, LBR, NPY)⬆	NRO, FR, NHQE, TGF-α, G-CSF (−)
Wu XK	2017	RCT	PCOS	Acupuncture + WM	WM	16 weeks	——	LBR (−)
Xu J	2018	RCT	PCOS	Acupuncture + WM	WM	8 weeks	(CPR, COR)⬆, (T, LH)⬇	AR, ET (−)
Yu L	2018	RCT	PCOS	Acupuncture + WM	WM	24 times	(COR, ET/EM, E2, P)⬆	CPR (−)
Altutunji AZ	2019	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	2 weeks	(CPR, PPR, E2, P)⬆, OHSS incidence⬇	AMH (−)
Kusuma AC	2019	RCT	IVF-ET	EA	False EA	6 times	(NRO, FR, BCL-2)⬆, BAX⬇	GDF9, BMP15 (−)
Shuai Z	2019	RCT	IVF-ET	TEAS	N	16 ± 2 times	(CPR, LBR)⬆	——
Wu HC	2019	RCT	IVF-ET	EA	False EA	12 weeks	(NHQE, CPR, PI3K/Akt mRNA)⬆	NRO (−)
Dehghani AS	2020	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	2 times	(CPR, PPR)⬆, BPR⬇	——
Guven PG	2020	RCT	IVF-ET	Acupuncture	N	3 times	(CPR, PPR, LBR)⬆, STAI-1 score⬇	——
Xiang S	2021	RCT	IVF-ET	EA	N	24 times	(NHQE, LBR, IRS-1/PI3K/GLUT4 mRNA)⬆	NRO, CPR (−)
Zhai ZJ	2021	RCT	IVF-ET	TEAS (20 mA/30 mA/40 mA)	TEAS (5 mA)	10–13 times	(NRO, ET)⬆	NHQE, CPR (−)

Note. T: Test group; C: Control group; RCT: Randomized controlled trial; IVF-ET: In vitro fertilization - embryo transfer; PCOS: Polycystic ovary syndrome; EA: Electroacupuncture; TEAS: Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation; N: None; WM: Western medicine; CPR: Clinical pregnancy rate; PPR: Persistent pregnancy rate; LBR: live birth rate; BPR: Biochemical pregnancy rate; COR: Cycle ovulation rate; AR: Abortion rate; FR: Fertilization rate; NRO: Number of retrieved oocytes; NHQE: Number of high-quality embryos; ET: Endometrial thickness; EM: Endometrial morphology; EAI: Endometrial arterial impedance; CM: Cervical mucus; E₂: Estradiol; P: Progesterone; STAI-1: State-trait anxiety inventory-1; OHSS: Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome; NPY: Neuropeptide Y; TGF-α: Transforming growth factor-α; G-CSF: Granulocyte colony stimulating factor; BCL-2: B-cell lymphoma-2; BAX: Bcl2-Associated X; PI3K: Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase; AKT: Protein kinase B; IRS-1: Insulin receptor substrate-1; GLUT4: Glucose transporter 4; GDF9: Growth differentiation factor 9; BMP15: Bone morphogenetic protein 15; ⬆: Improve; ⬇: Reduce; (−): Unchanged.