Research progress on the mechanism of acupuncture for improving myocardial ischemia in coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease （CHD） is a common and frequently occurring disease in clinical practice. As an adjunctive therapy， acupuncture can effectively improve the clinical symptoms of CHD， reduce the frequency and duration of angina attacks， decrease adverse cardiovascular events， and improve patients’ quality of life. Myocardial ischemia is the core pathological mechanism of CHD. In this paper， we summarized the basic research on acupuncture for myocardial ischemia in CHD both domestically and internationally in recent years. The findings showed that acupuncture can improve blood perfusion， alleviate post-ischemic myocardial tissue damage and post-ischemic reperfusion injury through multiple pathways， including inhibiting myocardial inflammatory response， beneficially regulating cardiac autonomic nerves， suppressing hyperactivity of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis， modulating cardiomyocyte apoptosis and autophagy， regulating myocardial energy metabolism， and promoting angiogenesis. Additionally， acupuncture exhibits protective effects against ischemia-reperfusion injury， characterized by its multi-target， multi-pathway， and comprehensive therapeutic features.