Progress of researches on mechanisms of needling and moxibustion sensations and their related sensation transmission

Abstract

There are some records about the needling and moxibustion sensations in Chinese ancient medical literature, in which, the concept of Deqi (qi arrival) and its relationship with the production of therapeutic effects were put forward. The generation of needling or moxibustion sensations is one of the symbol for qi reaching the affected site during the manipulation and is also related to the treatment outcomes. In the present paper, we reviewed current situations about the mechanisms of acupuncture and moxibustion stimulation induced sensations and their relation to the propagated sensation (PS) published in recent 10 years from the following four aspects: 1) the patterns of manifestation of needling sensations (including general sensations, and specific sensations, as well as the practitioner's hand felt heavy, tight, hard-going senses, etc.) and moxibustion sensations (local superficial and deep warmth); 2) modern anatomical and physiological basis (skin, loose and dense connective tissue, free nerve ending, various receptors); 3) neurohumoral mechanism of acupuncture stimulation induced PS phenomenon (mechanical receptors, afferent and efferent nerve fibers, neural center, various neurotransmitters/modulators, chemical substances, etc.); 4) neurohumoral mechanism of moxibustion stimulation induced channel transmission (transient receptor potential vanilloid receptors－heat sensitive receptors, heat-shock protein, immunocytes, etc.). Additionally, the authors also put forward some suggestions about future researches on acupuncture-moxibustion sensations.