scholarly journals Akt/aquaporin-4 signaling aggravates neuropathic pain by activating astrocytes after spinal nerve ligation in rats

Author(s):  
Shiwu Guo ◽  
Zhiwen Song ◽  
Junsheng He ◽  
Gang Yin ◽  
Jianguo Zhu ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takayuki Seto ◽  
Hidenori Suzuki ◽  
Tomoya Okazaki ◽  
Yasuaki Imajo ◽  
Norihiro Nishida ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The spinal nerve ligation (SNL) rat is well known as the most common rodent model of neuropathic pain without motor deficit. Researchers have performed analyses using only the von Frey and thermal withdrawal tests to evaluate pain intensity in the rat experimental model. However, these test are completely different from the neurological examinations performed clinically. We think that several behavioral reactions must be observed following SNL because the patients with neuropathic pain usually have impaired coordination of the motions of the right–left limbs and right–left joint motion differences. In this study, we attempted to clarify the pain behavioral reactions in SNL rat model as in patients. We used the Kinema-Tracer system for 3D kinematics gait analysis to identify new characteristic parameters of each joint movement and gait pattern. Results The effect of SNL on mechanical allodynia was a 47 ± 6.1% decrease in the withdrawal threshold during 1–8 weeks post-operation. Sagittal trajectories of the hip, knee and ankle markers in SNL rats showed a large sagittal fluctuation of each joint while walking. Top minus bottom height of the left hip and knee that represents instability during walking was significantly larger in the SNL than sham rats. Both-foot contact time, which is one of the gait characteristics, was significantly longer in the SNL versus sham rats: 1.9 ± 0.15 s vs. 1.03 ± 0.15 s at 4 weeks post-operation (p = 0.003). We also examined the circular phase time to evaluate coordination of the right and left hind-limbs. The ratio of the right/left circular time was 1.0 ± 0.08 in the sham rats and 0.62 ± 0.15 in the SNL rats at 4 weeks post-operation. Conclusions We revealed new quantitative parameters in an SNL rat model that are directly relevant to the neurological symptoms in patients with neuropathic pain, in whom the von Frey and thermal withdrawal tests are not used at all clinically. This new 3D analysis system can contribute to the analysis of pain intensity of SNL rats in detail similar to human patients’ reactions following neuropathic pain.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seon-Hee Oh ◽  
Myung Ha Yoon ◽  
Kyung Joon Lim ◽  
Byung Sik Yu ◽  
In Gook Jee ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Xu ◽  
HuiFang Li ◽  
YunPeng Zhang ◽  
TianYu Liu ◽  
Yi Feng

Abstract Background: Neuropathic pain can cause significant physical and economic burden to people, and there are no effective long-term treatment methods for this condition. We conducted a bioinformatics analysis of microarray data to identify related mechanisms to determine strategies for more effective treatments of neuropathic pain.Methods: GSE24982 and GSE63442 microarray datasets were extracted from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to analyze transcriptome differences of neuropathic pain in the dorsal root ganglions caused by spinal nerve ligation. We filtered the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the two datasets and Webgestalt was applied to conduct GeneOntology (GO) functional analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of the shared DEGs. String Database and Cytoscape software were used to construct the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network to determine the hub genes, which were subsequently verified in the GSE30691 dataset. Finally, miRDB and miRWalk Databases were used to predict potential miRNA of the selected DEGs.Results: A total of 182 overlapped DEGs were found between GSE24982 and GSE63442 datasets. The GO functional analysis and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the selected DEGs were mainly enriched in infection, transmembrane transport of ion channels, and synaptic transmission. Combining the results of PPI analysis and the verification of the GSE30691 dataset, we identified seven hub genes related to neuropathic pain (Atf3, Aif1, Ctss, Gfap, Scg2, Jun, and Vgf). Predicted miRNA targeting each selected hub genes were identified.Conclusion: Seven hub genes related to the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain and potential targeting miRNA were identified, expanding understanding of the mechanism of neuropathic pain and facilitating treatment development.


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