12/26/2025
Why do I talk about fascia so much, whether human or horse? Great explanation to foster understanding. Massage is so much more than muscle.
Fascia’s Signaling Molecules
How Massage Therapy Influences the Body’s Connective Communication Network
For much of medical history, fascia was dismissed as passive packing material — a structural wrapping that merely held muscles and organs in place. Modern research has overturned that view. Fascia is now recognized as a dynamic, sensory, and biochemical signaling system capable of influencing pain, inflammation, movement, and whole-body regulation.
At the center of this new understanding is fascia’s ability to communicate chemically, not just mechanically.
Fascia Is a Signaling Organ, Not Just a Tissue
Fascia is composed of an interconnected extracellular matrix (ECM) populated by fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, immune cells, vascular structures, and dense neural networks. These components respond continuously to mechanical input — load, stretch, compression, and shear — and translate those forces into biochemical messages.
This process, known as mechanotransduction, allows fascia to release signaling molecules that influence both local tissue behavior and systemic physiological responses.
Just as muscle contraction releases myokines, fascia releases its own family of signaling substances.
Fascia’s Key Signaling Molecules
While there is not yet a single universally accepted umbrella term like “myokines,” fascia-derived signaling molecules generally fall into several categories.
Fibrokines
Fibrokines are signaling molecules released by fibroblasts, the primary cellular architects of fascia. These substances regulate tissue remodeling, collagen turnover, inflammation, and repair. Mechanical loading, chronic tension, or injury alters fibrokine release, shaping how fascia adapts — or maladapts — over time.
Matrikines
Matrikines are bioactive fragments of extracellular matrix proteins released when fascia is stressed, compressed, or remodeled. Rather than being inert debris, these fragments act as signals that influence immune responses, cell migration, angiogenesis, and healing cascades.
Cytokines and Growth Factors
Fascia actively produces and responds to cytokines and growth factors such as:
• TGF-β (Transforming Growth Factor-beta)
• IL-6 and other interleukins
• VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor)
• Prostaglandins
These molecules regulate inflammation, fibrosis, vascular adaptation, and pain sensitivity.
Neurochemical Mediators
Fascial tissues also interact with neurochemical signals including:
• Substance P
• CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide)
• Nitric oxide
These mediators link fascia directly to the nervous system and help explain why fascial dysfunction is so closely associated with pain, guarding, and altered motor patterns.
When Fascial Signaling Goes Wrong
Healthy fascia is adaptable, hydrated, and responsive. Under excessive load, repetitive strain, trauma, or emotional stress, fascial signaling can shift toward:
• Chronic inflammation
• Excessive collagen cross-linking
• Increased myofibroblast activity
• Heightened nociceptive signaling
• Reduced tissue glide and elasticity
This biochemical environment reinforces protective tension and inefficient movement strategies — often long after the original cause has resolved.
Importantly, these changes are self-reinforcing. Altered mechanical input drives altered signaling, which further changes tissue structure and neuromuscular tone.
How Massage Therapy Influences Fascial Signaling
Massage therapy does not simply “relax tissue.” Its primary influence occurs at the level of mechanical input and sensory modulation, which directly affects fascial signaling pathways.
1. Mechanical Load Normalization
Gentle, sustained pressure and shear forces help normalize mechanical strain across the fascial matrix. This alters fibroblast behavior and reduces excessive myofibroblast contraction, shifting the biochemical environment away from fibrosis and toward remodeling.
2. Improved Hydration and ECM Fluid Dynamics
Manual therapy enhances interstitial fluid exchange within fascia, improving the movement of signaling molecules and reducing stagnation. Better hydration supports healthier collagen spacing and more balanced signal transmission.
3. Modulation of Inflammatory Signals
Research shows that manual therapies can reduce pro-inflammatory cytokine expression while supporting anti-inflammatory signaling. This helps calm tissues that have become chemically sensitized through chronic load or stress.
4. Neurological Down-Regulation
By stimulating mechanoreceptors in the skin and fascia, massage therapy influences the autonomic nervous system. Reduced sympathetic tone leads to lower levels of stress-related neurochemicals that amplify pain and tissue guarding.
5. Restoration of Adaptive Feedback Loops
Massage restores clearer sensory input to the nervous system. This allows the body to recalibrate muscle tone, posture, and movement patterns based on accurate information rather than protective over-signaling.
Why Massage Effects Can Be Systemic
Because fascial signaling molecules influence immune function, vascular tone, and neural regulation, the effects of massage are often whole-body, not local. A change in one region’s fascial signaling can propagate through myofascial continuities, neurovascular pathways, and biochemical feedback loops.
This explains why skilled manual therapy can:
• Improve movement coordination
• Reduce pain in distant regions
• Enhance recovery and tissue resilience
• Support emotional regulation and perceived safety
A New Model of Manual Therapy
In this framework, massage therapy is best understood as a biochemical and neurological intervention mediated through fascia, not merely a mechanical technique.
It does not force tissues to change.
It changes the signals tissues receive, allowing the body to reorganize itself.
Key Takeaway
Fascia is an active signaling network that responds to mechanical input by releasing bioactive molecules that influence pain, inflammation, movement, and healing. Massage therapy works by modulating this signaling environment, helping restore healthy communication between tissues, the nervous system, and the body as a whole.
When we touch fascia skillfully, we are not just moving tissue —
we are reshaping the messages that tissue sends.
https://koperequine.com/force-without-boundaries-how-fascia-and-myofascial-therapy-shape-epimuscular-flow/
