Coronary heart disease (CHD) is believed to be one of the major diseases with myocardial ischemia (MI) as basic pathological change. The clinical trials and experimental researches in the last 15 years were analyzed in this paper, and it was found that purinergic signaling could transduce the selective expression of molecular adenosine receptors A1, A2A, A2B, A3 in cardiovascular system, which had the potential to be a novel target for treating cardiovascular disease. Using purinergic receptors to explore the actions of acupuncture for myocardial ischemia provides new perspectives to elucidate the mechanism of acupuncture for MI.
Keywords: acupuncture; myocardial ischemia; purine signal; review.