Abstract
This article hypothesizes that the Chinese medicine meridian system is a special channel network comprising of skin with abundant nerves and nociceptive receptors of various types, and deeper connective tissues inside the body with the flowing interstitial fluid system. These meridian channels provide efficient migratory tracks mainly due to durotaxis (also including chemotaxis) for mast cells, fibroblasts and other cells to migrate and carry out a number of physiological functions. Acupuncture acting on meridian channel causes cytoskeletal remodeling through mechanotransduction, leading to regulation of gene expression and the subsequent production of related proteins. Also, stimulation on cell surface can trigger Ca2+ activities, resulting in a cascade of intra- and inter-cellular signaling. Moreover, nerve endings in the meridian channels interact with mast cells and induce the degranulation of these cells, leading to the release of many specific biomolecules needed for homeostasis, immune surveillance, wound healing and tissue repair. Acupoint along a meridian channel is a functional site to trigger the above functions with specificity and high efficiency.
Highlights
Acupuncture, a major component in Chinese medicine, has a history of well over two thousand years and is effective to maintain good health and to treat various diseases [1]
Some research findings suggested that the anatomical structure of meridian channels and acupoints are related to the connective tissues and the connective tissue interstitial fluid (CTIF) system [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
Chinese Medicine 2009, 4:10 http://www.cmjournal.org/content/4/1/10 nective Tissue Interstitial Fluid system with acupuncture in action explained by Mechanotransduction, cells Durotaxis and mast cell Degranulation
Summary
Acupuncture, a major component in Chinese medicine, has a history of well over two thousand years and is effective to maintain good health and to treat various diseases [1]. As the acupoints along the meridian channels are proposed to be functional sites with high efficiency and specificity, they need to be: (1) near dense nerve structure (abundant nerve endings with polymodal and other receptors) and (2) dense vasculature, (3) near lymphatic vessels, (4) with interstitial fluid flowing through Such characteristics are supported by anatomical studies [7,73]. The hypothesis for the anatomical structure of the Chinese medicine meridian channels and acupoints Based on the modern concepts of biomedical science and recent advances in acupuncture research, the author puts forth the following hypothesis: The Chinese medicine meridian channel system has a structure bounded by the skin where there are abundant nociceptive receptors of various types and bound below by another layer of connective tissue with flowing interstitial fluid (including proteins with surface charges and ions) as ground substance. Acupuncture applied to these sites could improve the efficiency of the above functions through mast cell degranulation with specificity
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