Here's some research tying them together.
Jinlou (筋絡 jīn luò) translates to tendons and meridians in English.
Jīn (筋) means tendon, sinew, or ligament.
Luò (絡) means network, channels, or meridians.
Therefore, jinlou refers to the body's network of connective tissues (tendons) that connect muscles to bones and the channels of traditional Chinese medicine (meridians) through which energy is believed to flow.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6448339/
4. Discussion
Thereby, we established a close connection of acupuncture points with structures of connective tissue. Heine has found that, in 80% of acupuncture points, a bundle of vascular nerves of soft connective tissue passes through fascia holes to the skin. The same anatomical structures were also found by Egerbacher in cattle and dogs, without specifying a percentage of the found VNBs per dissected acupuncture points [15].
By finding fascia fractions of the human extracellular matrix with a fibre run as the course of the acupuncture meridian, we suggest that the anatomical substrate of the acupuncture meridian is the fascia superficialis corporis of the human extracellular matrix as it was suggested in scientific works [16–18]. At the same time, we found that parts of muscles, tendons, and ligaments follow the meridian course (bladder meridian; large intestine meridian).
The histology showed that, between verum (acupuncture meridian) and placebo, there is no detectable difference. The fibre folding in the meridian progression could be detected macroscopically and microscopically. However, after fixation with formaldehyde 80%, the proteins of the tissue were denaturated. Therefore, further investigations on unfixed tissue samples will be performed in future projects.
In addition, we could not represent fascia of an entire acupuncture meridian. One of the reasons for this could be that, in our preparations, the dissection of tissue adhesion was not easy to perform. At the same time we found no corresponding fibre courses of the fascia superficialis corporis on the thigh and the forefoot, which would correspond to a meridian course. We therefore hypothesize that other parts of the fascia, but also tendon courses, anatomically depict the meridian course.
Our study clearly supports the view that the human body's fascia network may be the physical substrate represented by the meridians of TCM [1]. Specifically, this hypothesis is supported by our anatomical, morphological, and histological observations made in human corpses.
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5. Conclusions
We suggest that not only fascia, especially the fascia corporis externa, but also deeper parts form the anatomical substrate of acupuncture meridians. In addition, parts of muscles, tendons, and ligaments follow the meridian course. Our observations build an anatomical basis for examining TCM principles and therapies, and it supports a holistic approach to diagnosis and treatment of diverse diseases.
Since we found VNBs in just a few of the acupuncture points and as we found VNBs even without an acupuncture point, we are no longer convinced that the sole concept of the function of the acupuncture system over neural reflexes is valid.