With a history of more than 4000 years, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) belongs to the most experienced and well-known natural medicine systems and attracts tremendous public interest. However, TCM has a long-standing tradition as a modality of experience-based medicine. Therefore, scientific research on its efficacy and mechanisms of action has been largely neglected for long. It was only recently that scientists inside and outside of China started to apply scientific methods to analyze TCM. As a part of TCM, acupuncture aims to restore and maintain health through the needling of specific points, that is, acupoints. While the clinical effects of acupuncture have drawn extensive attention from researchers of science and medicine, it is much more difficult to well elucidate the structural basis and action mechanism of acupoints along the meridians.

We invite investigators to contribute original as well as review articles on systematic and high-quality research of TCM. These works could be from different research areas, in addition to Chinese and Western medicine, including biochemistry, molecular biology, physiology, pharmacology, biophysics, bioinformatics, physics, and mathematics. We are particularly interested in papers reporting the development of advanced methodological and technical investigations. The topics on the latest innovative aspects that underline further enhancement of acupuncture are especially welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Medical imaging and morphological anatomy on structural and functional basis for meridians and acupoints
• Physiological and biophysical basis of mechanisms in acupoints
• Physiological and biophysical basis of conducting pathways along the meridians
• Modulation of physiological and biochemical processes by acupuncture and related stimuli
• Methods for the quantification of peripheral and central effects of acupuncture
• Advanced methodological and technical investigations on basis for meridians and acupoints

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