Hendersonville Acupuncture: How Needle Stimulation May Influence Cellular Behavior
—contributed by Virginia Schuler, L.Ac.
Can Acupuncture Alter Gene Expression?
When people ask me how acupuncture works, I start talking about fascia—not just because of myofascial planes and their implications for treating muscular dysfunction, but because of how the fascial network facilitates body-wide communication.
Many of you may know about fascia as it relates to musculoskeletal pain: how things like “fascial adhesions” can irritate nerve endings and limit range of motion. But as modern imaging gives us a sharper conception of fascia, our understanding of its purpose continues to expand beyond the realm of mere connective tissue.
Fascia 101
We used to see fascia as a fibrous net that kept muscles in place and nothing more, so it got thrown out during dissections. Now we know it as a continuous matrix that connects everything in our bodies. Literally everything, from our achilles tendons to our heart cells. The fascial fabric that allows your soleus to glide alongside your gastrocnemius (calf muscle) is connected to the fascia that enters the brain.
It’s also teeming with modes of communication, including sensory neurons, fluid, hormones, and neurotransmitters. Some researchers have even started referring to fascia as a “second nervous system.” [1]
The Interstitium Only Paints Part of the Picture
A few months ago, the New York Times released an article about the interstitium, a network of fluid-filled spaces within the fascia that may function as a third circulatory system. In addition to blood vessels and the lymph, the interstitium appears to transport chemical signalers including immune agents, hormones, proteins, and metabolites. And when researchers inject it with contrast dye, interstitial pathways map very closely to certain acupuncture meridians!
This isn’t new information, by the way. Scientists discovered the interstitium and aligned it with acupuncture channels years ago. [2] Even prior to that, researchers mapped acupuncture meridians to fascial planes, or chains of connective tissue that functionally support various movements. They found an 80 percent correspondence rate. [3]
Is that New York Times article the “proof” we’ve all been waiting for that meridians actually exist? Not necessarily. We require more research to draw that conclusion. Some acupuncturists even subscribe to the theory that meridians are more of an idea than a concrete vessel, but I digress.
The article specifically illustrates interstitial pathways which seem to align with the Pericardium channel, a meridian that complements the San Jiao in Chinese medicine. The San Jiao’s primary function is to transport fluids across the body. So, from my perspective as an acupuncturist, I see our modern understanding of the interstitium and its relationship to the Pericardium channel more as a suggestion that the San Jiao does, indeed, regulate fluid.
Plus, there are other ways in which fascia disseminates information that have even more interesting implications for acupuncture, in my opinion.
Mechanotransduction: How Mechanical Forces Translate to Biochemical Changes in the Body
Earlier I mentioned how fascia has gained notoriety for behaving like a second nervous system. Just like the traditional nervous system, it can relay information from the external world to the internal world. This is where the topic of mechanotransduction comes in.
Mechanotransduction is the process by which cells sense mechanical forces and convert them into signals that change cellular behavior.
How in the world does this happen? Cells throughout the fascia have structures that can detect things like pressure and tension. These structures include mechanosensitive ion channels, integrins, and the cytoskeleton. When they register a mechanical stimulus, they initiate a cascade of signals that affect everything from the cell’s shape and movement to inflammation, metabolism, and gene expression! [4]
If an acupuncture needle enters the body and gets stimulated, it starts a dialogue with the fascia via mechanotransduction. One obvious result of this dialogue includes structural changes via the reorganization of the extracellular matrix, which can alter tension throughout the body. This ripple effect across connective tissue may impact chronic pain, as it changes how tissues glide and interact with nerve endings.
However, acupuncture can treat more than just pain. When a needle is inserted at the appropriate point, its mechanical force can resonate all the way to a cell membrane and into the cytoskeleton, activating signaling pathways which reach the nucleus. From there, that same resonance can enliven transcription factors, ultimately influencing gene expression. And what does that result in? A change in cellular behavior, including things like how cells metabolise energy, unleash inflammation, and respond to stress. [1] So, with this idea in mind, the time-tested belief that acupuncture can help treat internal disorders like IBS, autoimmunity, and PMS may appear more plausible to the Western mind.
Fascia Is Also Only Part of the Story
The fascial network isn’t the only system that offers a scientific explanation for why acupuncture works. We must also consider the immune and circulatory systems, as well as how the peripheral nervous system modulates brain and gut functions. But these topics eclipse the scope of this blog post.
Of course, acupuncture fits within the healing system of Chinese medicine, which offers a different lexicon for explaining how and why acupuncture works. It uses terms that don’t seamlessly translate into English such as “qi” and asks us to consider the body as a holographic extension of nature. I revere the poetics of Chinese medicine, but also find it fascinating when modern science adds new dimensions to our understanding of it. I hope you find it fascinating, too!
Interested in chatting more about this topic or how acupuncture could help you feel better? Schedule a free 15-minute phone call with us today.
Sources & Further Reading
Lesondak, D. (2022). Fascia: What It Is and Why It Matters (2nd ed.)
Li, T. Tang. B. Q., Zhang, W. B., Zhao, M., Hu, Q., & Ahn, A. (2021). In vivo visualization of the Pericardium meridian with fluorescent dyes. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5581227
Langevin, H. M., Yandow, J. A. (2002). Relationship of acupuncture points and meridians to connective tissue planes. The Anatomical Record, 269(6), 257-265. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.10185
Tschumperlin, D. J. (2011). Mechanotransduction. Comprehensive Physiology, 1(2), 1057-1073. https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c100016