Acupuncture is one of the most promising modalities in complimentary medicine. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood yet. We found that in TRPV2 knockout male mice, acupuncture-induced analgesia was suppressed with a decreased activation of mast cells in the acupoints stimulated. The mast cell stabilizer sodium cromolyn could suppress the release of adenosine in the acupoints on male rats. A direct injection of adenosine A1 receptor agonist or histamine H1 receptor agonist increased β-endorphin in the cerebral-spinal fluid in the acute adjuvant arthritis male rats and thus replicated the analgesic effect of acupuncture. These observations suggest that the mast cell is the central structure of acupoints and is activated by acupuncture through TRPV2 channels. The mast cell transduces the mechanical stimuli to acupuncture signal by activating either H1 or A1 receptors, therefore triggering the acupuncture effect in the subject. These findings might open new frontiers for acupuncture research.

Nonmuscle myosin IIA (myosin IIA) is a force-producing protein involved in the process of cell migration. Its expression has been considered as a bad prognostic indicator in stage I lung adenocarcinoma. However, the expression and clinical significance of myosin IIA in esophageal cancer has not been explored. In this study, we investigate the expression level of myosin IIA in 50 esophageal squamous cancer and 30 adjacent normal esophageal tissues by immunohistochemical staining and correlated its expression with clinicopathological features. Myosin IIA was expressed in all esophageal squamous cancer tissues (100%) and 8 of 30 adjacent normal tissues (26.7%, P = 0.000). In cancer tissues, elevated myosin IIA expression level was significantly correlated with increasing metastatic lymph nodes, poorer cancer differentiation, and advanced tumor stage. Further univariate analysis suggested that strong myosin IIA expression was associated with a significantly shorter overall survival (P = 0.021). In addition, MYH9 SiRNA was transfected into esophageal squamous cancer cell line (KYSE-510) to study the role of myosin IIA in cell migration. SiRNA-mediated depletion of myosin IIA in KYSE-510 cells significantly increased cell-matrix adhesion and attenuated cell migration ability (P = 0.000). In conclusion, these findings indicate that overexpression of myosin IIA may contribute to the progression and poor prognosis of esophageal squamous cancer, and this effect may be associated with increased cancer cell migration.

Mast cells are found abundant at sites of acupoints. Nerve cells share perivascular localization with mast cells. Acupuncture (mechanical stimuli) can activate mast cells to release adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which can activate nerve cells and modulates pain-processing pathways in response to acupuncture. In this paper, a mathematical model was constructed for describing intracellular Ca2+ signal and ATP release in a coupled mast cell and nerve cell system induced by mechanical stimuli. The results showed mechanical stimuli lead to a intracellular Ca2+ rise in the mast cell and ATP release, ATP diffuses in the extracellular space (ECS) and activates the nearby nerve cells, then induces electrical current in the nerve cell which spreads in the neural network. This study may facilitate our understanding of the mechanotransduction process induced by acupuncture and provide a methodology for quantitatively analyzing acupuncture treatment.

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