Objective To analyze literature characteristics and research status of experimental study on acupuncture treating hyperlipidemia. Methods Review all literature of experimental study on acupuncture treating hyperlipidemia from China National Knowledge Infrastructure

VIP Data

Wanfang Data and Pubmed from January of 1993 to December of 2013. Adopt bibliometric methods to analyze literature characteristics including year and journal of paper published

author’s origin and fund assistance

and experiment characteristics including experimental animal

modeling methods

obtaining samples

observation indexes

techniques of acupuncture and moxibustion and points chosen. Results There were totally 76 periodical papers in Chinese. Seventeen papers were published in 2011

59 papers were published in traditional Chinese Medicine journals

accounting for 78%; 17 were in acupuncture journals

covering 22%. First authors were mainly from universities of Chinese medicine and affiliated hospitals（71papers

93%）. Papers with city level fund assistance were 5（ 7%）

and with ministry or provincial level fund assistance were 30（39%）

national level 21（28%）. Most experimental animals were rats（55 papers

72%）. The main modeling method was feeding with high fat forage（62 papers

82%）; the second was intraperitoneal injection of75% yolk emulsion（ 7 papers

9%）. Obtaining samples were blood（ 64 papers

84%） and hepatic tissue（ 11 papers

14%）. Main observation indexes of blood were total cholesterol（ 51 papers）

triglyceride（ 51 papers）

high density lipoprotein cholesterol（46 papers） and low density lipoprotein cholesterol（46 papers）. Main observation indexes of hepatic tissue was ATP-binding cassette transporter A1（5 papers） and peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor（ 3 papers）. The most frequently used point was "Fenglong（ ST40） "（ 23 times

30%）

"Zusanli（ST36）"（20 times

26%） was the second

"Shenque（RN8）"（14 times

18%） the third. About therapeutic techniques

acupuncture was mostly adopted（52 papers

68%）

moxibustion was the second（21 papers

28%）

acupuncture combined with medicine as the third（ 3 papers

4%）

and point injection as the fourth（ 1 paper

1%）. Conclusion Recently

experimental studies on acupuncture treating hyperlipidemia increased and relatively concentrated. Considering point selection in acupunture treatment of hyperlipidemia

the pathogenesis features of hyperlipidemia

such as deficiency

phlegm

dampness and blood stasis

and the protection of lipid regulating effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on target organs should be concerned.