Microglial ablation does not affect opioid-induced hyperalgesia in rodents.

Opioids are the frontline analgesics in pain management. However, chronic use of opioid analgesics causes paradoxical pain that contributes to the decrease of their efficacy in pain control and the escalation of dose in long-term management of pain. The underling pathogenic mechanism is not well understood.

Adding a sexual dysfunction domain to UPOINT system improves association with symptoms in women with interstitial cystitis and bladder pain syndrome.

Objective: To examine whether adding a sexual dysfunction domain to urinary, psychosocial, organ specific, infection, neurologic or systemic, and tenderness (UPOINT) system improves the association with interstitial cystitis and bladder pain syndrome (IC-BPS) symptom severity due to a high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in women.

Methods: A total of 90 Chinese women with IC-BPS were prospectively collected and classified in each domain of the UPOINT system. Symptom severity was measured using the Interstitial Cystitis Symptom Index (ICSI).

Increased severity of inflammation correlates with elevated expression of TRPV1 nerve fibers and nerve growth factor on interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome.

Objectives: Although evidence supports a role for inflammation in interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), the mechanism remains unknown. We determined whether inflammation causes an elevated expression of nerve growth factor (NGF) and transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor subtype 1 (TRPV1) and correlated them with the symptoms.

Methods: Bladder biopsies were obtained from 53 IC/BPS patients and 27 controls, and hematoxylin and eosin staining, immunostaining and Western blotting were performed to detect inflammation, TRPV1-immunoreactive and PGP9.