Electrical stimulation in the medullary nucleus raphe magnus inhibits noxious heat-evokedfos protein-like immunoreactivity in the rat lumbar spinal cord

1. This study examined the inhibitory effects of conditioning stimuli delivered to the periaqueductal gray (PAG), nucleus cuneiformis (CU), nucleus raphe magnus (NRM), nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis (NGC), and nucleus reticularis magnocellularis (NMC) on functionally identified neurons of the lumbar spinal cord dorsal horn in chloralose-anesthetized or decerebrate cats. 2. Neurons were classified according to their responses to a variety of cutaneous stimuli as low-threshold mechanoreceptive (LTM), wide dynamic range (WDR), or nociceptive specific (NS). The major aim of this study was to determine whether there was a difference in the effectiveness of the brain stem stimulation-produced inhibition of nociceptive (noci) neurons (consisting of both WDR and NS neurons) and the LTM non-nociceptive (nonnoci) neurons. There were no statistical differences in the susceptibility of WDR and NS neurons to brain stem-induced inhibition. 3. Most neurons tested could be inhibited by stimulation of any of the brain stem regions tested. In all cases the percentage of noci neurons inhibited from a given region was higher than the percentage of nonnoci neurons; however, this difference was only statistically significant in the case of NMC stimulation. 4. Threshold current intensities necessary to produce inhibition were determined for each neuron from each stimulation site. Although there was a trend for noci neurons to require slightly lower current intensities, there was in fact no statistically significant difference in the inhibitory thresholds between noci and nonnoci neurons for any of the regions tested. 5. A comparison of the mean threshold currents for the five regions studied revealed that the lowest stimulation currents were obtained in NMC with NRM, CU, NGC, and PAG, each requiring progressively higher current intensities in order to produce inhibition. 6. These results indicate that stimulation in PAG and NRM not only inhibits the responses of noci neurons but also those of nonnoci neurons. Moreover, stimulation in reticular regions adjacent to these two regions is effective in inhibiting the responses of both noci and nonnoci neurons.

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Inhibition of feline spinal cord dorsal horn neurons following electrical stimulation of nucleus paragigantocellularis lateralis. A comparison with nucleus raphe magnus

Brain Research ◽

10.1016/0006-8993(85)90444-5 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 348 (2) ◽

pp. 261-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Bruce G. Gray ◽

Jonathan O. Dostrovsky

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Electrical Stimulation ◽

Dorsal Horn ◽

Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn ◽

Nucleus Raphe Magnus ◽

Dorsal Horn Neurons ◽

Raphe Magnus ◽

Nucleus Paragigantocellularis ◽

Spinal Cord Dorsal ◽

Stimulation Of

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Differential modulation of excitatory and inhibitory populations of superficial dorsal horn neurons in lumbar spinal cord by Aβ-fiber electrical stimulation

Pain ◽

10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001836 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 161 (7) ◽

pp. 1650-1660 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wei Fan ◽

Andrei D. Sdrulla

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Electrical Stimulation ◽

Dorsal Horn ◽

Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽

Superficial Dorsal Horn ◽

Differential Modulation ◽

Dorsal Horn Neurons ◽

Lumbar Spinal

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Tail Nerve Electrical Stimulation and Electro-Acupuncture Can Protect Spinal Motor Neurons and Alleviate Muscle Atrophy after Spinal Cord Transection in Rats

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2017/7351238 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-11 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Yu-Ting Zhang ◽

Hui Jin ◽

Jun-Hua Wang ◽

Lan-Yu Wen ◽

Yang Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Electrical Stimulation ◽

Muscle Atrophy ◽

Motor Neurons ◽

Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽

Hindlimb Muscle ◽

Neurotrophin 3 ◽

Spinal Cord Segment ◽

Cord Injury ◽

Lumbar Spinal

Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in death of spinal neurons and atrophy of muscles which they govern. Thus, following SCI, reorganizing the lumbar spinal sensorimotor pathways is crucial to alleviate muscle atrophy. Tail nerve electrical stimulation (TANES) has been shown to activate the central pattern generator (CPG) and improve the locomotion recovery of spinal contused rats. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a traditional Chinese medical practice which has been proven to have a neural protective effect. Here, we examined the effects of TANES and EA on lumbar motor neurons and hindlimb muscle in spinal transected rats, respectively. From the third day postsurgery, rats in the TANES group were treated 5 times a week and those in the EA group were treated once every other day. Four weeks later, both TANES and EA showed a significant impact in promoting survival of lumbar motor neurons and expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and ameliorating atrophy of hindlimb muscle after SCI. Meanwhile, the expression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in the same spinal cord segment was significantly increased. These findings suggest that TANES and EA can augment the expression of NT-3 in the lumbar spinal cord that appears to protect the motor neurons as well as alleviate muscle atrophy.

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