| Background: The acupuncture therapy is the invaluable heritage of Chinese Medicine; it has been widely used for treating chronic pain and other diseases. However, there is still no uniform opinion towards the underlying mechanisms of it. Modern medicine endeavored to uncover the secret of AP and meridian from the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological perspective. Based on these backgrounds, this thesis is the further exploration of the neurobiological mechanisms of AP and meridian. Research Method: 1.In vivo extracellular microfilament recordings of afferent disharges from Aα/Aβ/Aδ fibers were taken from peripheral nerves to search for units with nerve endings or RFs in the skin or the muscles. The location of the RFs for each identified unit was marked on scaled diagrams of rat hind limb.2. Noxious antidromic stimulation-induced Evans blue extravasation was used to map the RFs of C-fibers in the skin on rat foot or anterior tibial muscle. The distribution patterns of afferent terminals gained by previous two methods were compared with the classical atlas of APs and meridians, and the relation between AP/ meridian and the nerve terminals was observed. 3. The CAP-induced EMG in muscles belonging to homonymous and heterogeneous meridians was investigated in spinalized rat after hypodermal or intramuscular injection of CAP. 4. Using CB-HRP antidromic tracing technique, the distributions of MNs innervating the muscles of three-Yang and three-Yin meridian of hand in spinal anterior horn were investigated and the dendritic progections between the MNs of homo-meridian were observed. Results: 1. For both A- and C-fibers, the distribution of RFs was closely associated with the APs. In the skin, the RFs concentrated either at the sites of APs or along the orbit of meridian channels. Similarly, the distribution of sarcous sensory receptors recorded from TA or rectus femoris muscle was consistent with the APs on them. The evans blue extravasation on the back of rat foot... |
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