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The mechanisms underlying that injury of skin afferents does not produce neuropathic pain: the role of BDNF
Liu Xian-guo * #,Zhou Li-Jun
Pain Research Center and Department of Physiology, Zhongshan Medicine School of Sun Yat-sen University
*Correspondence author
#Submitted by
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Funding: 教育部博士点基金,国家自然科学基金(No.,)
Opened online:18 January 2010
Accepted by: none
Citation: Liu Xian-guo,Zhou Li-Jun.The mechanisms underlying that injury of skin afferents does not produce neuropathic pain: the role of BDNF[OL]. [18 January 2010] http://en.paper.edu.cn/en_releasepaper/content/39074
 
 
Although a large body of evidence has shown that peripheral nerve injury usually induces neuropathic pain, there are also clinical studies demonstrating that injury of the sural nerve, which almost only innervates skin, fails to do so. The underlying mechanism, however, is largely unknown. In the present work, we found that the transection of either the gastrocnemius-soleus (GS) nerve innervating skeletal muscle or tibial nerve supplying both muscle and skin, but not of the sural nerve produced a lasting mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in adult rats. High-frequency stimulation (HFS) or injury of either the tibial nerve or the GS nerve induced late-phase long-term potentiation (L-LTP) of C-fiber-evoked field potentials in spinal dorsal horn, while HFS or injury of the sural nerve only induced early-phase LTP (E-LTP). Furthermore, HFS of the tibial nerve induced L-LTP of C-fiber responses evoked by the stimulation of the sural nerve and the heterotopic L-LTP was completely prevented by spinal application of TrkB-Fc (a BDNF scavenger). Spinal application of low dose BDNF (10pg/ml) enabled HFS of the sural nerve to produce homotopic L-LTP. Finally, we found that injury of the GS nerve but not that of the sural nerve up-regulated BDNF in DRG neurons, and that the up-regulation of BDNF occurred not only in injured neurons but also in many uninjured ones. Therefore, the sural nerve injury failing to produce neuropathic pain may be due to the nerve containing insufficient BDNF under both physiological and pathological conditions.
Keywords:Sural nerve;Brain-derived neurotrophic factor;Neuropathic pain;Long-term potentiation;Spinal dorsal horn
 
 
 

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