TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wang, Lina
A1  - Sikora, Jacek
A1  - Hu, Lei
A1  - Shen, Xueyong
A1  - Grygorczyk, Ryszard
A1  - Schwarz, Wolfgang
T1  - ATP release from mast cells by physical stimulation : a putative early step in activation of acupuncture points
T2  - Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine
N2  - In Chinese medicine acupuncture points are treated by physical stimuli to counteract various diseases. These stimuli include mechanical stress as applied during the needle manipulation or tuina, high temperatures as applied during moxibustion, and red laser light applied during laser acupuncture. This study aimed to investigate cellular responses to stimuli that might occur in the tissue of acupuncture points. Since they have a characteristically high density of mast cells that degranulate in response to acupuncture, we asked whether these processes lead to ATP release. We tested in in vitro experiments on mast cells of the human mast-cell line HMC-1 the effects of the physical stimuli; mechanical stress was applied by superfusion of the cells with hypotonic solution, heat was applied by incubation of the cells at 52°C, and red laser light of 657 nm was used for irradiation. We demonstrate that all the stimuli induce ATP release from model human mast HMC-1 cells, and this release is associated with an intracellular free Ca2+ rise. We hypothesize that ATP released from mast cells supplements the already known release of ATP from keratinocytes and, by acting on P2X receptors, it may serve as initial mediator of acupuncture-induced analgesia.
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/50512
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-505122
SN  - 1741-4288
SN  - 1741-427X
N1  - Copyright © 2013 Lina Wang et al. 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.
VL  - 2013
IS  - Art. 350949
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
PB  - Hindawi
CY  - New York, NY
ER  -