title: Acupuncture muscle channel in the subcutaneous layer of rat skin.
abstract: Using a mixed-dye injection technique, we found a novel kind of muscle fiber with a lumen, established its precise location in the subcutaneous muscle layer along the acupuncture muscle of the bladder line, and determined its detailed ultrastructure. The channels with flowing liquid were a novel kind of muscle fibers with lumens and they were located in the subcutaneous muscle layer of rat. Their detection was realized by using chrome-hematoxylin and a mixture of fluorescent nanoparticles and commercial Pelikan ink. These acupuncture muscle channels were hidden among the neighboring skin skeletal muscle fibers and were barely distinguishable from them with light microscopes. Only with a transmission electron microscope were their characteristic features shown to be different from normal skin skeletal muscle. These features included undifferentiated muscle fibers that resembled immature myofibrils without Z-lines and reassembled telophase nuclei.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Physics Laboratory, Frontier Physics Research Division, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Byung-Cheon
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Vyacheslav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ogay
authors.forename: Ki Woo
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yuwon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jin-Kyu
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kwang-Sup
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Soh
mesh_terms: D026881:Acupuncture; D000818:Animals; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D016740:Meridians; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012867:Skin / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D040521:Subcutaneous Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes