The basic studies about the acupuncture treatment of depression via regulating the brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF) signaling pathway were retrieved from databases and reviewed.The available studies show that acupuncture intervenes in depression by regulating the BDNF/tropomyosin-related kinase B(TrKB) and tissue plasminogen activator(tPA)/BDNF signaling pathways to modulate synaptic plasticity and BDNF epigenetics.However，most of the available studies lack the reverse verification of the BDNF pathway，and the studies about the pathway or mechanism are limited to the classical upstream and downstream targets.In addition，the specific mechanism between acupoints，BDNF pathway，and disease target organs remains to be elucidated.