title: Efficacy of femtosecond lasers for application of acupuncture therapy.
abstract: Acupuncture treatment utilizes the stimulation of metal acupuncture needles that are manually inserted into a living body. In the last decades, laser light has been used as an alternative to needles to stimulate acupuncture points. We previously reported suppression of myostatin (Mstn) gene expression in skeletal muscle by means of femtosecond laser (FL) irradiation, after electroacupuncture, in which acupuncture needles are stimulated with a low-frequency microcurrent. The purpose of the study here was to investigate the efficacy of FL irradiation in mouse skeletal muscle with regard to protein synthesis. After irradiation of the hindlimbs, we first analyzed Mstn gene expression and Mstn protein level in the skeletal muscle. We then evaluated phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and its downstream target 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K). The results showed that FL irradiation significantly reduced the amount of Mstn protein and enhanced the phosphorylation of p70S6K in of the mTOR/S6K signaling pathway. We suggest that FL irradiation activated the protein synthetic pathway in the skeletal muscle. In conclusion, we determined that FL irradiation can serve as an alternative for acupuncture needles and has the potential of being a new non-invasive acupuncture treatment of skeletal muscle.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, 650-0017, Japan.|Genome Science Research Unit, Life Science Research Center, Kobe Tokiwa University, Kobe, 653-0838, Japan.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Materials Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Nara, 630-0912, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoichiroh
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hosokawa
authors.affiliation: The Integrated Center for Mass Spectrometry, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, 650-0017, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hatano
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, 650-0017, Japan.|Genome Science Research Unit, Life Science Research Center, Kobe Tokiwa University, Kobe, 653-0838, Japan.
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sugano
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Osaka, 589-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, 650-0017, Japan. ytakaoka@med.kobe-u.ac.jp.|Genome Science Research Unit, Life Science Research Center, Kobe Tokiwa University, Kobe, 653-0838, Japan. ytakaoka@med.kobe-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takaoka
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000097:blood; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D007834:Lasers; D008297:Male; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism; D055435:Myostatin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D038762:Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 70-kDa / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: C525912:Mstn protein, mouse; D055435:Myostatin; D038762:Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 70-kDa; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; C448959:ribosomal protein S6 kinase, 70kD, polypeptide 2; D003402:Creatine Kinase
keywords: Acupuncture therapy; Femtosecond laser; Myostatin; Skeletal muscle; mTOR; p70S6K