<p style="text-align: center;">ZHANG Di, XU Mingshu, ZHANG Yingjie, GE Linbao, CHEN Chunyan</p><p style="text-align: center;">(1 Shanghai Research institute of Acupuncture and Meridian，Shanghai 200030; 2 Shanghai Qigong Research institute, Shanghai 200030; 3 Shanghai Research Center of Acupuncture and Meridian, Shanghai 201203）</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Abstract</strong>:&nbsp; The article talks about the methods to establish the model of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and to observe&nbsp; the&nbsp; effect&nbsp; of&nbsp; acupuncture&nbsp; on&nbsp; adjusting&nbsp; the&nbsp; level&nbsp; of&nbsp; tumor&nbsp; necrosis&nbsp; factor-⍺&nbsp; (TNF-⍺)&nbsp; and&nbsp; matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMPs-3).&nbsp; &nbsp;The cytokines about KOA can be devided into two types,one is damaging cytokines,the another is protectingcytokines. TNF-⍺and&nbsp; &nbsp;MMPs-3 are belong to damaging cytokines.The acupuncture and moxibustion,as the traditional external therapies of TCM, in the treatment of KOA have the advantages of reducing the quantity of the damaging cytokines and increasing the quantity of the protecting cytokines．</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Key&nbsp; words</strong>:acupuncture,knee&nbsp; osteoarthritis,model&nbsp; of&nbsp; knee&nbsp; osteoarthritis,tumor&nbsp; necrosis&nbsp; factor-α,matrix metalloproteinase-3</p><p><br/></p>