Considerations about introducing epigenetics into Chinese acupuncture research

Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in genes and gene expression that do not involve DNA nucleotide sequences. It emphasizes that the information of gene regulation can interact through the ways of multi-channel and multi-level， and it is reversible. The therapeutic effects of acupuncture is based on the suitable rules includes principles， methods， formulas， medicinals and manipulation， which also reflect the characteristics of entirety， comprehensive， bidirectional and functional regulation. But the mechanism is unclear， which need further research. Then， the introduction of epigenetics into acupuncture research will be valuable attempt， which including DNA methylation， covalent modification， chromatin remodeling， microRNA and so on. The studies will be helpful for explain the material basis of principles， methods， formulas， medicinals and manipulation， and also will provide new ideas for exploring objective indicators of them. The research results will be useful for guiding the acupuncture clinic and improving the clinical efficacy.