Abstract: BACKGROUND: The team’s previous research found that foot-Yangming meridian and foot-Taiyang meridian play an important role in the pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis, with the correspondence to the hamstring muscle and quadriceps muscle, respectively. Under the guidance of meridian syndrome differentiation, manipulative therapy for knee osteoarthritis has achieved good results, but its mechanism of action is not yet clear.
OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of aponeurotic channel manipulation on contractile mechanics of the skeletal muscle in rabbits with knee osteoarthritis. 
METHODS: Twelve New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into three groups, a musculoaponeurotic manipulation group, a conventional manipulation 
group and a control group, with four rabbits in each group. The right knee arthritis model was established by the method of video right rear knee extension and fixed brake. The former two groups were treated by musculoaponeurotic manipulation and conventional manipulation respectively on the 2nd day after modeling, three times a week for 2 weeks in total. Rats in the control group were fed normally. At 1 week after the end of the treatment, the quadriceps and hamstring muscles of the right thigh were taken for contractile mechanics test. The experiment was approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (approval No. 20190221018)
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: After 2 weeks of treatment, the single contraction amplitude, tetanic contraction amplitude and elastic modulus of the quadriceps femoris and hamstring muscle in the two treatment groups were better than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The amplitude of single contraction and tetanic contraction in the musculoaponeurotic manipulation group was better than that in the conventional manipulation group (P  < 0.05). These findings indicate that musculoaponeurotic manipulation can effectively improve the contractile mechanics index of rabbit knee osteoarthritis model, so as to improve the clinical symptoms and delay the progress of the disease.

Key words: musculoaponeurotic manipulation,  osteoarthritis,  skeletal muscle,  mechanics,  anima,  model