System of channels and collaterals constituted by different kinds of stem cell niche in ordinal distribution

Jianxin ZHANG

ABSTRACT

AIM:

To investigate the correlation of tissue specific stem cells regarded as original source of regeneration for an absolute majority of tissues and the system of channels and collaterals.

METHODS:

Referring to traditional classic theoretic works Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic, Yellow Emperor's Eighty-one Difficult Classic, An Examination of the Eight Extra Meridians and modern theoretic works about channel and collaterals, we revealed the distributional law of stem cell niche in the tissue according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and verified the TCM theory of channels and collaterals by animal experiment.

RESULTS:

TCM system of channels and collaterals was constituted by different kinds of stem cell niche in ordinal distribution ①Only the stem cell niche, where different types of adult stem cell were found, has a highly unified and stabilized structure of cell aggregation; In other words, the structures of the cell aggregations formed through self-proliferation of stem cells are similar or identical. ②The time for the treatment of the origin of disease is the same longer as the time for the self-duplication of the adult stem cells and their generation of healthy cells through differentiation at different levels. ③The classification of channels and collaterals in the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic corresponds to that of the adult stem cells. The adult stem cells generate three grades of committed stem cells after differentiation. Many abroad researchers reported that only a few cancer stem cells were the source of cancer, whereas many cancer cells could not grow into new cancer. ④At the initial stage of embryo growth, stem cells and the progenitor cells proliferate and differentiate in coordination and there does not exist the three types of committed stem cells, nor does the universally unified structure of stem cell niche. Afterwards, the adult stem cells in the stem cell niches become the original source of the tissue regeneration. The cells that regularly migrate in the system of channels and collaterals are mainly the committed stem cells, adult stem cells are the next and the second type of committed stem cells that are easy to form cancer cells are the least. ⑤Acupuncture will inevitably damage and even dismiss the stem cell niches but those cell components will reform new stem cell niches. And adult stem cells in the new niches may normally show self-proliferation in an ultra-complimentary way to generate more healthy committed stem cells through differentiation and the second type of committed stem cells generate more healthy differential cells through differentiation so as to make the corresponding tissue structure and function recovered to the benign state.

CONCLUSION:

The theory of channels and collaterals has profoundly revealed that the stem cell niche is a complex and open micro system; that is, the types of exotic committed stem cells and adult stem cells are not stable. It has both the static quality of being stable without change and the dynamic state of being complex and changeable. And, in the evolutionary history of species, both can be inverted into each other.