Identification of peripheral oxytocin-expressing cells using systemically applied cell-type specific adeno-associated viral vector.

Oxytocin is primarily synthesised in the brain and is widely known for its role in lactation and parturition after being released into the blood from the posterior pituitary gland. Nevertheless, peripheral tissues have also been reported to express oxytocin. Using systemic injection of a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector, we investigated the expression of the green fluorescent protein Venus under the control of the oxytocin promoter in the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and testes of adult rats.

Effects of optogenetic stimulation of vasopressinergic retinal afferents on suprachiasmatic neurones.

Physiological circadian rhythms are orchestrated by the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The activity of SCN cells is synchronised by environmental signals, including light information from retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). We recently described a population of vasopressin-expressing RGCs (VP-RGC) that send axonal projections to the SCN.

Effects of lateral olfactory tract stimulation on Fos immunoreactivity in vasopressin neurones of the rat piriform cortex.

In the main olfactory system, odours are registered at the main olfactory epithelium and are then processed at the main olfactory bulb (MOB) and, subsequently, by the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON), the piriform cortex (PC) and the cortical amygdala. Previously, we reported populations of vasopressin neurones in different areas of the rat olfactory system, including the MOB, accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) and the AON and showed that these are involved in the coding of social odour information. Utilising immunohistochemistry and a transgenic rat in which an enhanced green fluorescent protein reporter gene is expressed in vasopressin neurones (eGFP-vasopressin), we now show a population of vasopressin neurones in the PC.

Vasopressin casts light on the suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Key Points: A subpopulation of retinal ganglion cells expresses the neuropeptide vasopressin. These retinal ganglion cells project predominately to our biological clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Light-induced vasopressin release enhances the responses of SCN neurons to light.

The TRPM8 channel forms a complex with the 5-HT(1B) receptor and phospholipase D that amplifies its reversal of pain hypersensitivity.

Effective relief from chronic hypersensitive pain states remains an unmet need. Here we report the discovery that the TRPM8 ion channel, co-operating with the 5-HT(1B) receptor (5-HT(1B)R) in a subset of sensory afferents, exerts an influence at the spinal cord level to suppress central hypersensitivity in pain processing throughout the central nervous system. Using cell line models, ex vivo rat neural tissue and in vivo pain models, we assessed functional Ca(2+) fluorometric responses, protein:protein interactions, immuno-localisation and reflex pain behaviours, with pharmacological and molecular interventions.

A novel model of combined neuropathic and inflammatory pain displaying long-lasting allodynia and spontaneous pain-like behaviour.

Many clinical cases of chronic pain exhibit both neuropathic and inflammatory components. In contrast, most animal models of chronic pain focus on one type of injury alone. Here we present a novel combined model of both neuropathic and inflammatory pain and characterise its distinctive properties.

Multiple chronic pain states are associated with a common amino acid-changing allele in KCNS1.

Not all patients with nerve injury develop neuropathic pain. The extent of nerve damage and age at the time of injury are two of the few risk factors identified to date. In addition, preclinical studies show that neuropathic pain variance is heritable.

The SH3 domain of postsynaptic density 95 mediates inflammatory pain through phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase recruitment.

Sensitization to inflammatory pain is a pathological form of neuronal plasticity that is poorly understood and treated. Here we examine the role of the SH3 domain of postsynaptic density 95 (PSD95) by using mice that carry a single amino-acid substitution in the polyproline-binding site. Testing multiple forms of plasticity we found sensitization to inflammation was specifically attenuated.

Cold comfort pharm.

Cooling of the skin has long been thought to be beneficial in pain states but intense cold is clearly noxious. Does cooling lead to pain or gain? Rapid progress in this controversy has been made since the discovery of specific ion channels of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family that are activated by cooling of sensory nerve cells to below body temperature. This review focuses on the role of one of these, TRPM8, which has been implicated in cool sensation and cold pain by recent knockout mouse studies, but remarkably also appears capable of eliciting a novel analgesic gating control over noxious inputs in chronic pain states.

Neuropathic changes in equine laminitis pain.

Laminitis is a common debilitating disease in horses that involves painful disruption of the lamellar dermo-epidermal junction within the hoof. This condition is often refractory to conventional anti-inflammatory analgesia and results in unremitting pain, which in severe cases requires euthanasia. The mechanisms underlying pain in laminitis were investigated using quantification of behavioural pain indicators in conjunction with histological studies of peripheral nerves innervating the hoof.

Complement induction in spinal cord microglia results in anaphylatoxin C5a-mediated pain hypersensitivity.

Microarray expression profiles reveal substantial changes in gene expression in the ipsilateral dorsal horn of the spinal cord in response to three peripheral nerve injury models of neuropathic pain. However, only 54 of the 612 regulated genes are commonly expressed across all the neuropathic pain models. Many of the commonly regulated transcripts are immune related and include the complement components C1q, C3, and C4, which we find are expressed only by microglia.

Delayed sympathetic dependence in the spared nerve injury (SNI) model of neuropathic pain.

Background: Clinical and experimental studies of neuropathic pain support the hypothesis that a functional coupling between postganglionic sympathetic efferent and sensory afferent fibers contributes to the pain. We investigated whether neuropathic pain-related behavior in the spared nerve injury (SNI) rat model is dependent on the sympathetic nervous system.

Results: Permanent chemical sympathectomy was achieved by daily injection of guanethidine (50 mg/kg s.

The voltage-gated sodium channel Na(v)1.9 is an effector of peripheral inflammatory pain hypersensitivity.

We used a mouse with deletion of exons 4, 5, and 6 of the SCN11A (sodium channel, voltage-gated, type XI, alpha) gene that encodes the voltage-gated sodium channel Na(v)1.9 to assess its contribution to pain. Na(v)1.

GTP cyclohydrolase and tetrahydrobiopterin regulate pain sensitivity and persistence.

We report that GTP cyclohydrolase (GCH1), the rate-limiting enzyme for tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) synthesis, is a key modulator of peripheral neuropathic and inflammatory pain. BH4 is an essential cofactor for catecholamine, serotonin and nitric oxide production. After axonal injury, concentrations of BH4 rose in primary sensory neurons, owing to upregulation of GCH1.

The transcription factor ATF-3 promotes neurite outgrowth.

Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons regenerate after a peripheral nerve injury but not after injury to their axons in the spinal cord. A key question is which transcription factors drive the changes in gene expression that increase the intrinsic growth state of peripherally injured sensory neurons? A prime candidate is activating transcription factor-3 (ATF-3), a transcription factor that we find is induced in all DRG neurons after peripheral, but not central axonal injury. Moreover, we show in adult DRG neurons that a preconditioning peripheral, but not central axonal injury, increases their growth, correlating closely with the pattern of ATF-3 induction.

TRPA1 contributes to cold, mechanical, and chemical nociception but is not essential for hair-cell transduction.

TRPA1, a member of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels, is expressed by dorsal root ganglion neurons and by cells of the inner ear, where it has proposed roles in sensing sound, painful cold, and irritating chemicals. To test the in vivo roles of TRPA1, we generated a mouse in which the essential exons required for proper function of the Trpa1 gene were deleted. Knockout mice display behavioral deficits in response to mustard oil, to cold ( approximately 0 degrees C), and to punctate mechanical stimuli.

Detection of cold pain, cold allodynia and cold hyperalgesia in freely behaving rats.

Background: Pain is elicited by cold, and a major feature of many neuropathic pain states is that normally innocuous cool stimuli begin to produce pain (cold allodynia). To expand our understanding of cold induced pain states we have studied cold pain behaviors over a range of temperatures in several animal models of chronic pain.

Results: We demonstrate that a Peltier-cooled cold plate with +/- 1 degrees C sensitivity enables quantitative measurement of a detection withdrawal response to cold stimuli in unrestrained rats.

RNAi blocks DYT1 mutant torsinA inclusions in neurons.

Early onset generalized dystonia is a dominantly inherited movement disorder caused by neuronal dysfunction without an apparent loss of neurons. The same single mutation (GAG deletion) causes most cases and results in loss of a glutamic acid (E) in the carboxy terminal region of torsinA (Delta302/303). To model the neuronal involvement, adult rat primary sensory dorsal root ganglion neurons in culture were infected with lentivirus vectors expressing human wild-type or mutant torsinA.

Mutant SPTLC1 dominantly inhibits serine palmitoyltransferase activity in vivo and confers an age-dependent neuropathy.

Mutations in enzymes involved in sphingolipid metabolism and trafficking cause a variety of neurological disorders, but details of the molecular pathophysiology remain obscure. SPTLC1 encodes one subunit of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT), the rate-limiting enzyme in sphingolipid synthesis. Mutations in SPTLC1 cause hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy (type I) (HSAN1), an adult onset, autosomal dominant neuropathy.

Bradykinin produces pain hypersensitivity by potentiating spinal cord glutamatergic synaptic transmission.

Bradykinin, an inflammatory mediator, sensitizes nociceptor peripheral terminals reducing pain threshold. We now show that the B2 kinin receptor is expressed in rat dorsal horn neurons and that bradykinin, a B2-specific agonist, augments AMPA- and NMDA-induced, and primary afferent-evoked EPSCs, and increases the frequency and amplitude of miniature EPSCs in superficial dorsal horn neurons in vitro. Administration of bradykinin to the spinal cord in vivo produces, moreover, an NMDA-dependent hyperalgesia.

Peripheral axonal injury results in reduced mu opioid receptor pre- and post-synaptic action in the spinal cord.

In both the spared nerve injury (SNI) and spinal nerve ligation (SNL) rat peripheral neuropathic pain models the presynaptic inhibitory effect of the mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonist (DAMGO) on primary afferent-evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) and miniature EPSCs in superficial dorsal horn neurons is substantially reduced, but only in those spinal cord segments innervated by injured primary afferents. The two nerve injury models also reduce the postsynaptic potassium channel opening action of DAMGO on lamina II spinal cord neurons, but again only in segments receiving injured afferent input. The inhibitory action of DAMGO on ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) activation in dorsal horn neurons is also reduced in affected segments following nerve injury.

Differential analgesic sensitivity of two distinct neuropathic pain models.

Progressive tactile hypersensitivity (PTH) manifesting after sciatic nerve crush and spared nerve injury (SNI) are two distinct rodent experimental models of neuropathic pain. PTH develops months after recovery from the nerve crush in response to repeated intermittent low-threshold mechanical stimulation of the reinnervated sciatic nerve skin territory and represents a model of stimulus-induced pain. SNI is characterized by an early and sustained increase in stimulus-evoked pain sensitivity in the intact skin territory of the spared sural nerve after sectioning of the two other terminal branches of the sciatic nerve.

High basal expression and injury-induced down regulation of two regulator of G-protein signaling transcripts, RGS3 and RGS4 in primary sensory neurons.

The regulators of G-protein signaling (RGS) proteins are a family of intracellular modulators of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) sensitivity. They act as GTPase accelerating proteins returning the Galpha subunit back to an inactive latent state. We find that RGS3 and RGS4 are constitutively expressed at high levels in C-fiber primary sensory neurons in the adult rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and transection of the sciatic nerve results in a substantial down regulation of these transcripts.

Progressive tactile hypersensitivity after a peripheral nerve crush: non-noxious mechanical stimulus-induced neuropathic pain.

Neuropathic pain syndromes are characterized by spontaneous pain and by stimulus-evoked allodynia and hyperalgesia. Stimulus-induced pain, i.e.