Objective To observe effects and possible mechanism of elongated needle with paired needling"Shuidao"（ ST28） and"Zhibian"（ BL54） on neurological function of spinal cord injury rats. Methods Thirty SD rats were randomly divided into control group

model group and treatment group

10 rats in each group. The model group and the treatment group were used improved Allen ’s method to make models of spinal cord injury. In the treatment group

when rats revived after operation

the researchers immediately used elongated needle to needle"Shuidao"（ ST28） and "Zhibian"（ BL54） with method of paired needling to acupuncture the rats

about 2 cm depth and twirl for 1 min and made two ipsilateral acupoints to form a loop connected to electric acupuncture apparatus

electric acupuncture for 30 min

once per day. After 5 days the researchers used BBB scoring method to observe motor function of rats’ hind limbs and took tissue of spinal cord to make histological observation

count apoptotic index and detect expression of the Bcl-2 and Bax. Results Compared with the control group

in the model group

BBB motor function score significantly decreased but nerve cell apoptotic index and percentage of positive cells about Bax and Bcl-2 of spinal cord tissue increased（ P < 0. 05 or P < 0. 01）. Compared with the model group

in the treatment group

BBB motor function score significantly increased but nerve cell apoptotic index decreased（ P < 0. 05 or P < 0. 01）; And percentage of positive cells about Bax of spinal cord tissue significantly decreased but percentage of positive cells about Bcl-2 significantly increased（ P < 0. 01）. Conclusion Elongated needle with paired needle"Shuidao"（ ST28） and"Zhibian"（ BL54） may promote neural functional to recover by regulating the expression of apoptotic gene that Bax and Bcl-2 to reduce apoptosis of nerve cells.