ArticleAcupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society2015
Neuroanatomical characteristics of deep and superficial needling using LI11 as an example.
Article in Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Acupuncture for neuropathic pain in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Skin-Brain Axis: neural pathways in acupuncture treatment.Chinese medicine · 2025Review
- Comparison of Sensory and Motor Innervation Between the Acupoints LR3 and LR8 in the Rat With Regional Anatomy and Neural Tract Tracing.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2021Article
- Correlated Sensory and Sympathetic Innervation Between the Acupoint BL23 and Kidney in the Rat.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2020Article
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6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo compare the neuroanatomical characteristics of the deep and superficial tissues at acupuncture point LI11 using a neural tracing technique, in order to examine the neural basis of potential differences between deep and superficial needling techniques.
methodsIn order to mimic the situations of the deep and superficial needling, the retrograde neural tracer Alexa Fluor 488 conjugate of cholera toxin subunit B (AF488-CTB) was injected into the muscle or subcutaneous tissue, respectively, at acupuncture point LI11 in eight rats (n=4 each). Three days following injection, the distribution of motor and sensory neurons labelled with AF488-CTB was examined in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) under a fluorescent microscope.
resultsFor both types of injection, labelled motor and sensory neurons were distributed on the side ipsilateral to the injection in the spinal cord and DRG between spinal levels C5 and T1. The number of labelled motor neurons following intramuscular injection was significantly higher than subcutaneous injection. By contrast, the number of labelled sensory neurons following subcutaneous injection was significantly higher in number and extended over a greater number of spinal segments compared to intramuscular injection.
conclusionsThese data indicate that the motor and sensory innervation of muscle and subcutaneous tissue beneath LI11 differ, and suggest that acupuncture signals induced by deep and superficial needling stimulation may be transmitted through different neural pathways.
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