Demonstration of a trigeminothalamic pathway to the oval paracentral intralaminar thalamic nucleus and its involvement in the processing of noxious orofacial deep inputs.
Using combined retrograde labeling and Fos protein immunohistochemistry, we show that after masseter inflammation, a population of neurons in the dorsal portion of the subnuclei interpolaris/caudalis transition zone at the level of the obex was activated and projected to the oval paracentral nucleus (OPC) of the intralaminar thalamic nuclei. The present findings indicate a trigeminothalamic pathway to the OPC intralaminar nucleus involved in central processing of orofacial deep noxious input.
Sugiyo
Shinichi
S
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Dental School; and Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland, Rm. 5A26, 666 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
Takemura
Motohide
M
Dubner
Ronald
R
Ren
Ke
K
D000818:Animals; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020646:Intralaminar Thalamic Nuclei / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D014278:Trigeminal Nuclei / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*