Anales RANF

S17-01 ATP RELEASE FROM MAST CELLS BY ACUPUNCTURE STIMULI L.N. Wang 1,3 , M. Huang 1,2 . R. Grygorczyk 3) and W. Schwarz 1,2,4 1 Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Shanghai Research Centre for Acupuncture and Meridians, Shanghai, China, 2 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Acupoint Function and Mechanism, and Fudan University, Shanghai, China; 3 Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada; 4 Goethe-University Frankfurt and Max- Planck-Institute for Biophysics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. To treat various diseases selected points at the body surface (acupuncture points, trigger points, head zones) can be stimulated. In traditional Chinese medicine, activation of cellular structures in acupoints has been demonstrated to have e.g. analgesic effects. In acupuncture, various physical stimuli are used: during conventional needling cells within the connective tissue receive mechanical stress, in moxibustion heat is applied, and electrical fields as well as red laser light have been used. Recent investigations support that release of ATP and its metabolic products play a key role in acupoint responses. An initial step in analgesia seems to be activation of mast cells within acupuncture points. Inhibition of mast-cell degranulation attenuates analgesia. Also the other physical stimuli activate mast cells. By electrophysiological methods we demonstrate that physical stimuli activate ion channels associated with mast-cell degranulation. Again, inhibition of the ion-channel activity counteracts mast-cell degranulation and acupuncture-induced analgesia. Physical stimulation of mast cells leads to extracellular Ca 2+ entry. Fluorescence measurements illustrate that intracellular Ca 2+ changes are associated with the ATP release, suggesting that the downstream purinergic signalling may be one of the underlying mechanisms. Our focus is, therefore, on the release of ATP from mast cells embedded within the connective tissue of acupuncture points. In conclusion, we suggest that initiation of analgesia by acupuncture as well as by moxibustion involves mast cell activation, and that the associated peripheral release of ATP forms a key step in this process.