[Sixty years of meridian-collateral exploration: a road of interdisciplinary research].

The theory of traditional Chinese medicine believes that meridian-collateral (jingluo) is an important system to maintain life and participates in the formation and cure of disease. Exploring the biological connotation of meridian-collateral is the key content in the modern research of traditional Chinese meridian. For more than 60 years, scholars at home and abroad have carried out the researches of meridian-collateral from the fields of biomedicine (e.g. physiology, anatomy and histomorphology), imaging, physics, chemistry, computer technology, etc. Meridian-collateral research in modern times demonstrates a multi-disciplinary historical development and provides multi-perspective scientific information for understanding meridian-collateral. The meridian-collateral research in future needs more accurate multidisciplinary intersection, which will be the light of hope to reveal the biological connotation of meridian-collateral.