Acute myocardial ischemia up-regulates nociceptin/orphanin FQ in dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord of rats.
Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) possesses modulatory effects on somatic noxious signals in spinal cord, while the potential role in visceral nociception remains elusive. We designed this study to investigate the hypothesis that cardiac nociceptive signals from acute ischemic myocardium to the spinal cord are transmitted or modulated by mechanisms including N/OFQ. We examined the changes of N/OFQ and its mRNA in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord of upper thoracic segments innervating the heart of rats. Thoracic epidural anesthesia was performed to confirm neural mechanism underlying the changes. We observed that selective coronary artery occlusion significantly up-regulated N/OFQ and ppN/OFQ mRNA in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord. Thoracic epidural anesthesia abolished the changes in the expression of N/OFQ and its mRNA. The observations indicate that cardiac noxious neural afferent drive is responsible for the up-regulation of N/OFQ in the primary afferent neurons and intrinsic spinal neurons.
Guo
Zheng
Z
Department of Anesthesiology, Shanxi Medical University, 56 Xinjian Nan Road, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi, PR China. ykdgz2004@yahoo.com
Yao
Tai-Ping
TP
Wang
Jin-Ping
JP
Ding
Jian-Ying
JY
D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D000777:Anesthetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D023921:Coronary Stenosis / Q000150:complications; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000150:complications*; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D018847:Opioid Peptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D020671:Posterior Horn Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae; D015854:Up-Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D017833:Visceral Afferents / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D000097629:Nociceptin
D000777:Anesthetics; D018847:Opioid Peptides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000097629:Nociceptin