title: Optical coherence tomography reveals in vivo cortical plasticity of adult mice in response to peripheral neuropathic pain.
abstract: We examined neural plasticity in mice in vivo using optical coherence tomography (OCT) of primary somatosensory (S1) and motor (M1) cortices of mice under the influence of sciatic nerve chronic constriction injury (CCI), a model of neuropathic pain widely utilized in rats. The OCT system used in this study provided cross-sectional images of the cortical tissue of mice up to a depth of about 1mm with longitudinal resolution up to 11 microm. This is the first study to evaluate neural plasticity in vivo using OCT. CCI mice exhibited cold allodynia and spontaneous pain behaviors, which are signs of neuropathic pain, 30 days after sciatic nerve ligation, when OCT observation of S1 and M1 cortices was carried out. The scattering intensity of near-infrared light within the hind paw area of S1 and M1 regions in the contralateral hemisphere was significantly higher than in the ipsilateral hemisphere. These CCI-induced increases in scattering intensity within cortical regions associated with the hind paw probably reflect elevated neural activity associated with neuropathic pain. Synapses and mitochondria are believed to have high light scattering coefficients, since they contain remarkably high concentrations of proteins and complicated membrane structure. Number densities of mitochondria and synapses are known to increase in parallel with increases in neural activity. Our findings thus suggest that neuropathic pain gives rise to neural plasticity within the hind paw area of S1 and M1 contralateral to the ligated sciatic nerve.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathogenesis and Control of Oral Disease, Osaka University Graduate School of Dentistry, Suita, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ooi
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Satomura
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yanagida
authors.forename: Akitoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seiyama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D020426:Sciatic Neuropathy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence