PKMζ is essential for spinal plasticity underlying the maintenance of persistent pain.

Background: Chronic pain occurs when normally protective acute pain becomes pathologically persistent. We examined here whether an isoform of protein kinase C (PKC), PKMζ, that underlies long-term memory storage in various brain regions, also sustains nociceptive plasticity in spinal cord dorsal horn (SCDH) mediating persistent pain.

Results: Cutaneous injury or spinal stimulation produced persistent increases of PKMζ, but not other atypical PKCs in SCDH.