Assesment of Meridian Theory in the Vascular System

血管系统经络理论的评估

• 批准号: 7589207
• 负责人: David Daekyung Kim
• 金额: $ 19.5万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF MED/DENT OF NJ-NJ MEDICAL SCHOOL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-02-01 至 2011-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7589207
• 关键词: Achievement; Acupuncture Points; Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine; Acupuncture procedure; Alternative Medicine; Animals; Asians; Blood Pressure; Blood Vessels; Cheek structure; Chinese Herbs; Communication; Complementary and alternative medicine; Detection; Diagnosis; Disease; Effectiveness; Electrodes; General Population; Hamsters; Health; Human body; Hypertension; Knowledge; Large Intestine; Liver; Medical; Meridians; Mesentery; Messenger RNA; Methods; Molecular; Nitric Oxide; Nitric Oxide Synthase; Normal Range; Organ; Oriental Medicine; Pathologic; Patients; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A; Permeability; Phosphorylation; Physiological; Post-Translational Protein Processing; Production; Regulation; Reporting; Research; Research Project Grants; Salvia miltiorrhiza; Signal Transduction; Signaling Molecule; Stomach; System; Testing; Tissues; Use Effectiveness; Vascular Diseases; Vascular System; Vasodilator Agents; Vertebral column; Western Blotting; Work; angiogenesis; base; design; enzyme activity; human NOS3 protein; interest; intravital microscopy; novel strategies; protein expression; research study; response; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The meridian theory is the central theory of many complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) systems and it is the backbone of acupuncture and oriental medicine. The meridian theory deals with physiologic regulation and pathologic changes in the human body, and it guides the diagnosis and treatment of oriental medicine in many aspects, especially in relation to acupuncture. However, the biologic mechanisms of the meridian system and transduction of acupuncture signals on the meridian system remain unknown. Several reports have established the relevance of nitric oxide (NO), particularly the NO derived from endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) as a regulatory molecule in vascular tone, permeability, angiogenesis and tissue remodeling. We propose to investigate the CENTRAL HYPOTHESIS that acupuncture enhances the meridian communication system by activating nitric oxide synthase. We will use three different meridians: stomach meridian, liver meridian, large intestine meridian, to test our hypothesis. These meridians include three organs that are amenable to experiments by intravital microscopy and western blotting (cheek pouch in stomach meridian, cremaster in liver meridian, and mesentery in large intestine meridian). Our experiments will verify whether or not a) meridian acupoints can specifically stimulate changes in NOS expression or activation and NO production, and b) meridians are independent of each other or possess cross-talk capacity in stimulating NOS and NO production. Our focus is on understanding the normal state; however, because acupuncture assists in maintaining health, it may be difficult to detect its influence in healthy subjects. Therefore, we will use hypertension - a vascular disease state - to check whether or not salutary effects are induced by activation of acupoints along the meridians. We will apply methods of intravital microscopy, NO detection by NO-selective electrodes, and western blotting to examine the impact of acupuncture in the designed experiments. The following Specific Aims will test our central hypothesis in normal and disease states using hamsters. Aim 1: To determine whether or not stimulation of specific meridian acupoints induces production of NO. Aim 2: To assess whether acupuncture on a specific acupoint enhances the action of vasodilators through its specific meridian or several cross-talking meridians. AIM 3: To investigate the molecular mechanisms by which acupuncture regulates NOS activity along the meridians. Overall, the results should advance our understanding of the mechanisms of the meridian system and the new knowledge to be acquired by our research project may help to design new approaches to enhance the effectiveness of acupuncture treatments.

描述（由申请人提供）：子午理论是许多互补和替代医学（CAM）系统的中心理论，它是针灸和东方医学的骨干。子午线理论涉及人体的生理调节和病理变化，并指导许多方面的东方医学诊断和治疗，尤其是与针灸有关。但是，子午系统的生物学机制和子午系统上针灸信号的转导仍然未知。几份报道已经确定了一氧化氮（NO）的相关性，尤其是从内皮一氧化氮合酶（ENOS）衍生的NO作为血管张力，渗透率，血管生成和组织重塑的调节分子。我们建议研究针灸通过激活一氧化氮合酶增强子午线通信系统的中心假设。我们将使用三种不同的子午线：胃子午，肝脏子午，大肠子午线，以检验我们的假设。这些子午线包括三个器官，可以通过插入显微镜和蛋白质印迹（胃子午线中的脸颊袋，肝脏子午线的脸颊袋和大肠子午线）进行实验。我们的实验将验证a）子午线是否可以特异性地刺激NOS表达或激活的变化，而无需生产，而B）子午线彼此独立或具有跨越的能力来刺激NOS和无生产。我们的重点是理解正常状态。但是，由于针灸有助于维持健康，因此很难发现其在健康受试者中的影响。因此，我们将使用高血压（一种血管疾病状态）检查是否通过沿子午线的穴位激活诱导有益的效应。我们将采用浸润显微镜的方法，无选择电极的检测和蛋白质印迹来检查针灸在设计实验中的影响。以下特定目标将使用仓鼠在正常和疾病状态中测试我们的中心假设。目的1：确定特定的子午线穴位的刺激是否诱导NO的产生。目标2：评估特定穴位的针灸是通过其特定的子午线还是几个跨言语子午线来增强血管扩张剂的作用。目标3：研究针灸调节子午线活性的分子机制。总体而言，结果应提高我们对子午系统机制的理解以及我们的研究项目获得的新知识可能有助于设计新方法以增强针灸治疗的有效性。