[Progress of researches on acupuncture treatment of spinal cord injury by regulating programmed cell death]

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a highly disabling disease of the central nervous system, and seriously affects the patients' quality of life. A large number of studies have shown that programmed cell death (PCD) is an important pathological mechanism of secondary injury in SCI. As a non-drug therapy, acupuncture therapy has the characteristics of bidirectional, holistic and multi-level actions, which can target PCD pathways to play a neuroprotective effect, and has great potential in regulating PCD in the treatment of SCI. In the present paper, we systematically elaborated the PCD pathway related to SCI and summed up the possible mechanism of acupuncture underlying improvement of SCI from 1) regulating apoptosis, 2) modulating autophagy, 3) regulating pyroptosis, 4) inhibiting ferroptosis, and 5) suppressing necroptosis. These may provide a theoretical basis for acupuncture treatment of SCI and for further research in the coming years.