Development history of acupuncture and moxibustion diagnosis and treatment institutions since the founding of the People's Republic of China / 中国针灸

The development process of acupuncture and moxibustion diagnosis and treatment institutions since the founding of the People's Republic of China is summarized and analyzed. The main forms of acupuncture and moxibustion diagnosis and treatment institutions have shifted from the individual, joint clinic and outpatient department of acupuncture and moxibustion in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the present acupuncture and moxibustion departments in Chinese medicine hospitals and general hospitals.The construction and development of public and private acupuncture and moxibustion hospital and key specialty of acupuncture and moxibustion fully expand the clinical application of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy. In the future, the development of acupuncture and moxibustion diagnosis and treatment institutions should highlight its own features to satisfy the requirements of different levels of society.

Research progress on effects of traditional Chinese medicines on proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells / 中国中药杂志

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are a kind of pluripotent stem cells derived from bone marrows, which can not only support hematopoiesis, but also have capabilities of multidifferentiation, high-proliferation and self-renewing. They have become one of hotspots in stem cell studies. Studies on in vitro intervention with BMSCs with TCMs have made remarkable progress in recent years. According to the findings, some traditional Chinese medicines can promote proliferation of BMSCs, some can inhibit the apoptosis of BMSCs, while others can induce BMSCs to differentiate into multiple cell types, such as osteoblast. Furthermore, some studies also involved relevant action mechanisms. The authors summarized the advance in relevant studies by reference to relevant literatures of this field.

Study on the relative specificity of the heart and lung meridians in brain with fMRI / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the central modulation mechanism on the relative specificity of the Heart and Lung Meridians and to provide the experimental evidence for deeply study on correlation between meridian-viscera and brain.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ten healthy students in Anhui College of TCM were chosen and a modified block design was adopted. After 32 time points of resting and 32 of rotation needling, then 48 of resting and 32 stimulating, and 16 resting time points, functional imagings were collected at last. All the process would last for 10 min 44 sec. Acupuncture work was finished by one acupuncturist with extensive experience by acupuncture at the left Shenmen (HT 7) or Taiyuan (LU 8) with the disposable sterile stainless steel needle, and uniform reinforcing-reducing method was used with frequency of 1 Hz and depth of 1.0 cm. After the experiment, the sensation of acupuncture and the other feeling or psychic process were inquired and recorded detailedly. These data were analyzed by AFNI software.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Acupuncture at Taiyuan (LU 8) could excite the contralateral frontal lobe, apical lobe, cerebral ganglion, VI, VIII areas and inferior semilunar lobule of cerebellum, and restrain bilateral callosal gyrus and homolateral gyrus rectus. Acupuncture at Shenmen (HT 7) could excite the contralateral IV-VIII areas of cerebellum, and homolateral VI, VII areas of cerebellum, and restrain parts of homolateral apical lobe.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Acupuncture at Shenmen (HT 7) of the Heart Meridian and Taiyuan (LU 8) of the Lung Meridian can excite or restrain different brain areas, indicating that there are relatively specific corresponding brain areas for the Heart Meridian and Lung Meridian.</p>

Effect of electroacupuncture combined with medication on vascular endothelial cells in the compound hypertension and hyperlipemia rat / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the mechanism of electroacupuncture combined with medication for treatment of compound model of hypertension and hyperlipemia (CMHH).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>CMHH rat model was made by the way of "2K1C" combined with intragastric perfusion of high fat diet, and a normal group and a pseudosurgery group were set up. After modeling for 4 weeks, the successful model rats who had synchronously increase of blood pressure (BP) and blood lipids were randomly divided into a model group, a medication group , an electroacupuncture group and an acupuncture plus medication group. After interference of 4 weeks, changes of BP, total cholesterol (TC) and thiglyceride (TG) and contents of serum vWF, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA ) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAl-1) were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After interference, the levels of BP, TC, TG, vWF, t-PA and PAl-1 significantly changed in all the treatment groups as compared with those in the model group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) with most significantly changed in the electroacupuncture plus medication group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Both electroacupunctore and electroacupuncture combined with medication can down-regulate levels of BP, TC, TG, and decrease plasma vWF and PAl-1 levels, increase t-PA content, so as to effectively prevent and treat CMHH and possibly induced cerebral diseases.</p>

Study on effects of acupuncture at the heart meridian on gene expression pattern of heart in rats with acute myocardial ischemia / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To reveal the mechanism of acupuncture at the Heart meridian in treatment of myocardial ischemia from gene level.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A model of acute myocardial ischemia was made by ligation of left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery. Changes of gene expression pattern of the Lung meridian group, the Heart meridian group and the model group in the heart were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Differential expression genes and expression sequence tags (ESTs) were 14 with signal log ratio > or = 1 and 20 with signal log ratio < or = -1, mainly included immunological and inflammatory reaction relative genes, cell signal transduction and transferrin relative genes, and others, in the Lung meridian group vs the model group. Differential expression genes and ESTs were 20 with signal log ratio > or = 1 and 70 with signal log ratio < or = -1, mainly included ion channel and transport protein relative genes, cell apoptosis and stress reaction protein relative genes, metabolism relative genes, cell signal transduction and transferrin relative genes, DNA's binding, transcription and transcriptional factor relative genes, immunological and inflammatory reaction relative genes, and others, in the Heart meridian group vs the model group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>In number and types of differential expression genes and ESTs with signal log ratio > or = 1 or < or = -1, the changes in the Heart meridian group vs the model group were obviously different from those in the Lung meridian group vs the model group, indicating that the Heart meridian has relative specificity in protecting against acute myocardial ischemia.</p>