Revealing acupuncture meridian-like system by reactive oxygen species visualization

Abstract

To investigate the reactive oxygen species (ROS) distribution in living animal tissues, two ROS indicators, dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCFH-DA) and MitoSOX™ Red were applied to visualize ROS on the frontal interior abdominal wall of living SD-rats by tail vein injection and local smearing respectively. Revealed was an unexpected ROS distribution pattern. ROS were demonstrated in a few vertical fluorescent lines, which related to neither veins nor nerves but could be almost perfectly superimposable on a standard human acupuncture meridian network. The phenomenon that cells with high ROS content should be aligned in a regular manner is interesting as well as its resemblance to meridian system.