Perspective of Calcium Imaging Technology Applied to Acupuncture Research.
10.1007/s11655-023-3692-2
- Author:
Sha LI
1
;
Yun LIU
1
;
Nan ZHANG
1
;
Wang LI
1
;
Wen-Jie XU
1
;
Yi-Qian XU
1
;
Yi-Yuan CHEN
1
;
Xiang CUI
1
;
Bing ZHU
1
;
Xin-Yan GAO
2
Author Information
1. Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China.
2. Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China. gaoxy@mail.cintcm.ac.cn.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
acupuncture research;
calcium imaging;
nervous system;
optical imaging
- MeSH:
Calcium;
Acupuncture Therapy;
Acupuncture;
Acupuncture Analgesia/methods*;
Acupuncture Points;
Technology
- From:
Chinese journal of integrative medicine
2024;30(1):3-9
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Acupuncture, a therapeutic treatment defined as the insertion of needles into the body at specific points (ie, acupoints), has growing in popularity world-wide to treat various diseases effectively, especially acute and chronic pain. In parallel, interest in the physiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture analgesia, particularly the neural mechanisms have been increasing. Over the past decades, our understanding of how the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system process signals induced by acupuncture has developed rapidly by using electrophysiological methods. However, with the development of neuroscience, electrophysiology is being challenged by calcium imaging in view field, neuron population and visualization in vivo. Owing to the outstanding spatial resolution, the novel imaging approaches provide opportunities to enrich our knowledge about the neurophysiological mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia at subcellular, cellular, and circuit levels in combination with new labeling, genetic and circuit tracing techniques. Therefore, this review will introduce the principle and the method of calcium imaging applied to acupuncture research. We will also review the current findings in pain research using calcium imaging from in vitro to in vivo experiments and discuss the potential methodological considerations in studying acupuncture analgesia.
