Effects of Acupuncture, Moxibustion, Cupping, and Massage on Sports Injuries: A Narrative Review

Table 2

The experimental research published on acupuncture, moxibustion, and massage.

Condition	Intervention	Animals	Models	Results	Conclusion	Reference
Achilles tendon rupture	EA	Wistar rats	Achilles tendon rupture	TGF-β1↑ b-FGF ↑	EA may be a useful therapy for promoting tendon repair	[22]
Myofascial pain syndrome	TEAS	Rats	Myofascial pain syndrome	p-JNK↓	TEAS therapy may produce an analgesic effect by inhibiting the expression of p-JNK	[23]
Osteoarthritis	EA	Rats	Osteoarthritis pain	5-HT2A/C receptor activity↑	EA inhibits osteoarthritis-induced pain by enhancing activity of spinal 5-HT2A/2C receptor	[24]
Osteoarthritis	Moxibustion	Rats	Inflammatory joint disease	TNF-α↓	The protective effect of antiapoptotic is one of the key mechanisms for an ambient moxa smoking environment	[25]
				IL-1b↓
				Bcl-2↑
Arthritis	Moxibustion	Dilute brown nonagouti mice	Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA)	Phospho-Erk1/2↓	Moxibustion influences muscle regeneration in the CIA mouse model	[26]
				Myostatin↓
				GF-1↑
Muscle damage	Massage plus acupuncture	Rats	Exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD)	CK↓	Massage combined with acupuncture may reduce CK and have a protective effect on EIMD	[27]
Sciatic nerve injury	Massage	Rats	Neurons of sciatic nerve injury	NF-M↑	Massage therapy improved the motor function by the expression of spinal proteins NF-M	[28]

Note. 5-HT2A/C: 5-hydroxytryptamine 2 A/C; b-FGF: basic fibroblast growth factor; Bcl-2: B-cell lymphoma-2; CK: creatine phosphokinase; EA: electroacupuncture; IGF-1: insulin-like growth factor 1; IL-1b: interleukin 1 beta; NF-M: neurofilament proteins-M p-JNK: phosphorylated c-Jun N-terminal kinase; TEAS: transcutaneous electrical acupuncture point stimulation; TGF-β1: transforming growth factor-β1; TNF-α: tissue necrosis factor-alpha.