News on the

Fascia Research Project

of Werner Klingler MD, Robert Schleip PhD, Adjo Zorn PhD

 

 

·        October 2004:  We are not alone! We became aware of another research group besides us, which is experimenting with in vitro contraction of normal (non-pathological and uninjured) fascia. Located at University of Bradford(UK) and headed by Dr. Ian L. Naylor, this group is interested in the pharmacological regulation of wound healing. They have published several papers reporting a successful pharmacological stimulation of active tissue contraction in normal fascia.

 

 

 

·        November 2004: Meeting with James Oschman PhD, who inspired us to continue exploring the water binding dynamics in fascia.

 

Lecture presentation about our work at the 5th Interdisciplinary World Congress on Low Back & Pelvic Pain in Melbourne.

 

 

 

·        December 2004: We received a financial grant from the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado, which helps us cover some of our material expenses. We are using this now to also apply for a  matching grant from the International Society of Biomechanics

 

·        Dec. 2004 - Feb. 2005: We are repeating and extending the successful in vitro contraction test protocol of our colleagues at the University of Bradford with the substance mepyramine on rat lumbar fascia. Based on a personal suggestion from Dr.G. Gabbiani, we are now also including hypoxia in some of our test protocols.

 

 

·        January 2005: Meeting with Andry Vleeming PhD in Rotterdam, who expressed great interest in our work. Many inspiring suggestions by Andry; e.g. to include the supra- and interspinous ligaments in our histological analysis.

 

·        February  2005  Ian L. Naylor PhD visited our fascia research lab in Ulm. He helped us to install a similar superfusion system, like he used in his published pharmacological research with rat lumbar fascia.  In return, Robert Schleip will work with Dr. Naylor at his Bradford university lab this April. Lecture in Ulm

 

 

 

 

 

  • April 2005: our discussions with Ian Naylor PhD lead to the development of a new 4-chamber apparatus for measuring connective tissue contractions in a classic organ bath situation as well as in a modified superfusion arrangement (the details of which we intend to publish in an article in the European Journal of Pharmcology). With this new equipment we are able to three tissue pieces (of approx. 3 mm x 3 mm x 20 mm) simultaneously. A fourth chamber is used for comparison treatment of a control tissue in which all cells have been made unviable (via cycles of deep freezing & rapid thawing). Using this new technology, one week of intensive experiments of Dr. Ian Naylor and Robert Schleip at the University of Bradford (UK) lead to the following results: Application of mepyramine to rat lumbar or abdominal fascia in superfusion resulted in clear contractions in 15 out of 19 tests. On average it took approx. 60 min. to reach maximal contraction (of approx. 2 mN) and the following relaxation periods roughly mirrored the contraction curves.

 

 

 

 

  • May 2005: New discovery: The density of contractile connective tissue cells seems to be highest in the intramuscular perimysium (the thin fascial layer enclosing and separating muscular fascicles); much more so than in the endomysium (around individual muscle fibers) or the epimysium on the outside of muscle, or on broad superficial muscular sheets. If verified, this could have interesting implications for understanding passive muscle tone (at rest). Since tonic muscles are reported to contain much more permysium than phasic muscles (corresponding to ‘tough meat’ versus ‘tender meat’ quality), we started to experiment with rat soleus muscle, a clear tonic muscle. Our in vitro tests so far show that the muscle tissue contracts in response to mepyramine, even when its skeletal muscle contractility is systematically depleted by a tetanic exhaustion programme (electric overstimulation) or previous treatment with caffeine.

 

 

  • August 2005 : Robert Schleip worked together with Thomas Findley MD PhD , Research Director of the Northern New Jersey Pain & Rehabilitation Center,  which included offering a seminar for scientists and a workshop for manual therapists in New Jersey and New York.

 

 

  • September 2005: Adjo Zorn PhD, Birgit Frank and Robert Schleip worked together with Ian Naylor at his Bradford university lab. Lots of in vitro tests with rat fascia in Dr. Naylor’s new and improved superfusion systems showed that mepyramine definitely tends to elicit an active contractile response from rat dorsal fascia. Additionally, also oxytocin as well as adenosine elicite an active contractile effect from rat testicular capsule (a fascial tissue, specially dense with myofibroblasts). Following an idea by Dr. Naylor, we also tested the response of the catch muscles of mussles to mepyramine, as this musculature is able to keep a contraction for very long times without much energy expenditure. Interestingly we got the same responsiveness and the same long lasting response curves as from our fascial tissues. This suggests that the contraction kinetics of fascial myofibrobloblasts may have some yet to be explored similarities to the smooth muscles of these ocean creatures. Click here to view the 6 min. video clip ‘Fascia Fascination’ made by Birgit Frank & Adjo Zorn about this research intensive .

 

  • September – December 2005: Our invited oral lecture presentation at the 1st Internat. Congress of Osteopathic Medicine was met with great interest. Prior to our presentation, Prof. Michael Pattersen in his keynote lecture gave an extended preview of our report and underlined the importance of our findings.

 

 

  • April 2006: Further support for the hypothesis of muscle stiffness regulation via contractility of intramuscular fascia: We exposed bundles of human biopsy muscle tissue (vastus lateralis) to pre-treatment with several different knock-out protocols in order to disable contractility in the involved myofibers. Nevertheless the tissue bundles responded to subsequent application of mepyramine with clear and sustained contractions.

    Together with     Thomas Findley MD PhD  and several other international colleagues we are currently planning a 1st International Fascia Research Congress, to be held in Boston  Oct 4-5 2007. We are also engaged in trying to get international funding for a 3 year extension of our research project under the direction of Prof. Lehmann-Horn (Ulm University) as well as of Dr. Ian Naylor (Univ. of Bradford). If you know of any potentially interested sponsors, let us know.

 

 

  • August 2006: Presentation at the World Congress of Biomechanics, Munich, Germany; and at the Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Manuelle Medizin, Potsdam, Germany.

 

 

  • October 2006: Robert Schleip’s PhD dissertation on Active fascial contractility. Implications for musculoskeletal mechanics was honoured with the highest possible distinction (‘summa cum laude’) from the Medical Faculty of Ulm University, Germany. The dissertation can be emailed to interested colleagues upon request (PDF file, 3 MB). We intend to submit the main elements of this thesis to a physiological journal for publication; projected submission date is September 2007.

 

 

  • November 2006: beginning of a research cooperation with Lars Remvig MD, Birigit Juul-Kristensen PhD, Jens Halkjaer Kristensen MD of the Clinic for Orthop. Med. and Rehab., Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, and with Michael Krogsgard MD (Clinic for Orthopedic Surgery, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen) to study the myofibroblasts density in fasciae of hypermobile and non-hypermobile persons. Projected duration: Nov. 2006 to Oct 2008.

 

 

  • March 2007: Werner Klingler MD and Robert Schleip PhD are honoured for their work on fascial contractility with the Vladimir Janda Award. The award is jointly sponsored by the German Society for Manual Medicine (Deutschen Gesellschaft für Manuelle Medizin), the Society of Manual Medicine Physicians (Ärztegesellschaft für Manuelle Medizin) as well as the company Physiobörse. The accolade is in memoriam Professor Vladimir Janda MD DSc from the Charles University in Prague and it honors outstanding research contributions in the field of musculoskeletal medicine. Press release of Ulm university about the award in English / German.  

 

 

  • August  2007: We are getting reliable in vitro contractions of rat fascia in response to a physiological agent at nM-concentrations. We are therefore delaying submission of an intended article, in order to include these new findings. Two medical doctorate candidates have joined our team: Stefanie Rankl (who is devoting her dissertation to our histological project on joint mobility and myofibroblasts with Lars Remvig and colleagues) and Anne Christin Klein, who is focusing her dissertation on our in vitro contraction tests.

 

  • September 2007: we have improved our histological procedure. Now we are able to perform a quantitative analysis of myofibroblasts with fascial tissue samples gained via needle biopsy. 

 

  • October 2007: The First International Fascia Research Congress, at the Conference Center of Harvard Med. School, Boston, which had been co-initiated and co-organized by our group, was a great success (see e.g. the positive report in the journal Science). Our work was prominently featured at that congress, as well as in the newly released book 'Fascia Research - Basic Science and Implications for Conventional and Complementary Health Care, Findley TW & Schleip R (eds.), Elsevier Science, Munich 2007. Together with Peter Hujing PhD and Tom Findley MD PhD our group is actively preparing for the 2nd Fascia Research Congress in Amsterdam in 2009 (final dates will be posted at www.fascia2007.com). 

 

 

  • December 2007: We are busy upgrading our Fascia Research Laboratory at Ulm university. The new setup will allow simultaneous measurement of 4 separate tissue bundles in modified organ baths for mechanographic in vitro contraction tests. 

 

  • Spring 2008: During 5 weeks our team is supported by Mariline Martin, a doctoral student from Brazil. Among other things she examines in detail, how the superficial fascia in rats is composed of several sliding (as well as non-sliding) membraneous layers. During this time we also learn, that pure mechanostimulation (via isometric strain application) often results in clearer contractile responses than our usual pharmacological stimulation. 

 

  • Fall 2008: While our laboratory equipment upgrade is in its final stages, we are spending lots of time with data analysis and putting final touches on upcoming publications. Adjo Zorn PhD runs away for some time in an exploratory trip to Ghana, to examine gait dynamics in African people. A histological analysis by Stefanie Rankl reveals, that our responder tissue strips in the past were in fact characterized by a significantly higher density of myofibroblasts the non-responsive strip. We are honored by a very fruitful guest visit of Boris Hinz PhD to our department.

 

Upcoming lectures: 

  • Werner Klingler, Freudenstadt/Germany, 28.03.2009. Lecture given in German on "Faszien - mehr als nur ein passiver Kraftüberträger" as part of the 116th congress of the Zentralverband der Ärzte für Naturheilverfahren (ZAEN), see www.zaen.org

  • Lectures/workshops with Robert Schleip: click here 

 

Preview: Together with several other partnering organizations we will be offering an Interdisciplinary Fascia Research Course here at Ulm university during March 21st -26th 2010. Contents of this week long course will include animal and human tissue dissection, fascia contraction tests with animal fasciae, small group visits to live surgeries, clinical examination and palpation, scientific lectures, lively discussion, and much more. Confirmed overseas presenters already include Andry Vleeming, Thomas Findley, Leon Chaitow, Carla Stecco, Jean Claude Guimberteau, Siegfried Mense and Thomas Myers.  >>More information

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