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Review | Open Access
Sae Uchida, Harumi Hotta, "Acupuncture Affects Regional Blood Flow in Various Organs", Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 5, Article ID 843831, 7 pages, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nem051
Acupuncture Affects Regional Blood Flow in Various Organs
Abstract
In this review, our recent studies using anesthetized animals concerning the neural mechanisms of vasodilative effect of acupuncture-like stimulation in various organs are briefly summarized. Responses of cortical cerebral blood flow and uterine blood flow are characterized as non-segmental and segmental reflexes. Among acupuncture-like stimuli delivered to five different segmental areas of the body; afferent inputs to the brain stem (face) and to the spinal cord at the cervical (forepaw), thoracic (chest or abdomen), lumbar (hindpaw) and sacral (perineum) levels, cortical cerebral blood flow was increased by stimuli to face, forepaw and hindpaw. The afferent pathway of the responses is composed of somatic groups III and IV afferent nerves and whose efferent nerve pathway includes intrinsic cholinergic vasodilators originating in the basal forebrain. Uterine blood flow was increased by cutaneous stimulation of the hindpaw and perineal area, with perineal predominance. The afferent pathway of the response is composed of somatic group II, III and IV afferent nerves and the efferent nerve pathway includes the pelvic parasympathetic cholinergic vasodilator nerves. Furthermore, we briefly summarize vasodilative regulation of skeletal muscle blood flow via a calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) induced by antidromic activation of group IV somatic afferent nerves. These findings in healthy but anesthetized animals may be applicable to understanding the neural mechanisms improving blood flow in various organs following clinical acupuncture.
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Sae Uchida and Harumi Hotta. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
