[Experimental basis of acupuncture analgesia]

The research realised at INSERM, Unité 103, on the acupuncture analgesia in animal has brought to light certain phenomenon concerning physical, histological and physiological facts. The acupuncture point is a point having the least electrical resistance in relation to the surrounding teguments. The analgesia points studied has an even lower resistance than the other points of the same dermatoma. This is not bound to the phenomenon of surface, as it is also found in cadaver after having cleared the skin with alcohol, ether or acetone. The microscopic analysis of certain points in man and in animal has shown specific elements of the acupuncture point, under the form of a thickness of the epiderm, a modification of the collagen fibers of the derma, of the vascular spiral vessels surrounded by a network of a amyelinic fibers of the cholinergic type, with interlaced myelinic fibers. The acupuncture analgesia of the hind limb can be reproduced experimentally in rabbit, in a proportion of 72 percent in 58 rabbits. The algometric method chosen was the pin prick of the skin. This territorial analgesia can be transmitted by the serum on another rabbit.