Cupping Therapy and Animal Research: The Progress

Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies Volume 11, Issue 3, June 2018, Pages 81-82 open access Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies Letter to the Editor Author links open overlay panelTamerAboushanab National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Ministry of Health, 11662, P.O 88300, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Author links open overlay panelSaudAlSanad National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Ministry of Health, 11662, P.O 88300, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia College of Medicine, Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Al-Nada, Riyadh 13317-4233, Saudi Arabia Received 8 February 2018, Accepted 16 April 2018, Available online 28 April 2018. crossmark-logo https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jams.2018.04.005 Get rights and content Open Access funded by International Pharmacopuncture Institute Under a Creative Commons license Previous article in issue Next article in issue Although cupping therapy is one of the oldest traditional healing practices, there is a lack of sufficient clinical trials that have been conducted to examine its safety and efficacy [1]. Animal studies have a great impact on the medical community's understanding of various mechanisms of ailments, but they cannot replace clinical trials [2]. The results of five examples of animal-based studies on cupping therapy are presented in this article. The first study was conducted by Shekarforoush et al (2012), who reported the significant cardioprotective effect of cupping therapy [3]. The second study was conducted by Lee et al (2013), who reported the efficacy of cupping therapy to reverse induced cognitive impairment after hemorrhage [4]. The third study was conducted by Roostayi et al (2016), who reported an effective reduction of skin stiffness by cupping therapy [5]. The fourth study was conducted by Subadi et al (2017), who reported the expression of heat shock proteins (HSP70) and β-endorphin as a possible mechanism of action of cupping in terms of pain reduction [6]. Finally, the fifth study was conducted by Koh et al (2016), who reported a significant increase of preconditioned flap viability and tissue perfusion after cupping [7]. Interestingly, a human study conducted to obtain epithelial grafts preconditioned by cupping reported approximately the same results [8]Fig. 1. Download high-res image (435KB)Download full-size image Figure 1. Summary of included studies. (A) Shekarforoush et al., 2012. (B) Lee et al., 2013. (C) Roostayi et al., 2016. (D) Cupping therapy cup. (E) Koh et al., 2016. (F) Subadi et al., 2017. In conclusion, there have been a few animal research studies conducted in the field of cupping therapy. The few conducted animal studies reported some promising effects of cupping therapy. More studies are recommended. Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. References [1] H. Cao, M. Han, X. Li, S. Dong, Y. Shang, Q. Wang, et al. Clinical research evidence of cupping therapy in China: a systematic literature review BMC Compl Altern Med, 10 (1) (2010 Nov 16), p. 70 CrossRefView Record in Scopus [2] H.B. Van der Worp, D.W. Howells, E.S. Sena, M.J. Porritt, S. Rewell, V. O'Collins, et al. Can animal models of disease reliably inform human studies? PLoS Med, 7 (3) (2010 Mar 30), p. e1000245 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846855/ CrossRef [3] S. Shekarforoush, M. Foadoddini, A. Noroozzadeh, H. Akbarinia, A. Khoshbaten Cardiac effects of cupping: myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure in the rat heart Chin J Physiol, 55 (4) (2012 Aug 31), pp. 253-258 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23282166 [4] J.H. Lee, D. Joh, Y.H. Choi, C.K. Chung, Y.S. Choi, M.G. Cha, et al. Effects of cupping therapy on memory impairment after hemorrhage in rats Kor J Orient Physiol Pathol, 27 (6) (2013), pp. 789-794 View Record in Scopus [5] M.M. Roostayi, T. Norouzali, F.D. Manshadi, M. Abbasi, A.A. Baghban The effects of cupping therapy on skin's biomechanical properties in Wistar rats Chin Med, 7 (01) (2016 Mar 9), p. 25 CrossRefView Record in Scopus [6] I. Subadi, B. Nugraha, H. Laswati, H. Josomuljono Pain relief with wet cupping therapy in rats is mediated by Heat Shock Protein 70 and ß-endorphin Iran J Med Sci, 41 (2) (2017 Jan 25), pp. 384-391 View Record in Scopus [7] K.S. Koh, S.W. Park, T.S. Oh, J.W. Choi Flap preconditioning by pressure-controlled cupping in a rat model J Surg Res, 204 (2) (2016 Aug 1), pp. 319-325 ArticleDownload PDFView Record in Scopus [8] S.S. Awad Chinese cupping: a simple method to obtain epithelial grafts for the management of resistant localized vitiligo Dermatol Surg, 34 (9) (2008 Sep 1), pp. 1186-1193 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18537996 CrossRef © 2018 Medical Association of Pharmacopuncture Institute, Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.