Electroacupuncture may relieve knee osteoarthritis by restoring immune balance, increasing T-cell receptor diversity, and reducing systemic inflammation.
The study compared patients with mild-to-moderate knee osteoarthritis before and after electroacupuncture treatment with age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Researchers sequenced the complementarity-determining region three of T-cell receptors from peripheral blood and analysed gene expression in neutrophils isolated from blood samples.
Before treatment, patients showed reduced T-cell receptor diversity compared with healthy volunteers, indicating disrupted immune balance. Following electroacupuncture, inflammatory markers including interleukin eight and interleukin eighteen decreased, while immune receptor diversity improved, suggesting that treatment may reduce systemic inflammation and support immune regulation.
