title: Chronic constriction injury induces aquaporin-2 expression in the dorsal root ganglia of rats.
abstract: Aquaporins are a family of water channel proteins involved in water homeostasis in several tissues. Current knowledge of aquaporin expression in the nervous system is very limited. Therefore the first aim of this study was to assess, by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting analysis, the presence and localization of aquaporin-2 in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of naïve adult rats. In addition, we evaluated aquaporin-2 expression in response to chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve, a model of neuropathic pain. Our results showed that aquaporin-2 expression was not detectable either in the spinal cord or the dorsal root ganglia of naïve rats. However, we showed for the first time an increase of aquaporin-2 expression in response to chronic constriction injury treatment in small-diameter dorsal root ganglia neurons but no expression in the lumbar spinal cord. These data support the hypothesis that aquaporin-2 expression is involved in inflammatory neuropathic nerve injuries, although its precise role remains to be determined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Unit of Human Anatomy, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Buffoli
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Borsani
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rezzani
authors.forename: Luigi F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Rodella
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D051398:Aquaporin 1 / Q000378:metabolism; D051399:Aquaporin 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000378:metabolism; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020426:Sciatic Neuropathy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C496022:Aqp1 protein, rat; C496025:Aqp2 protein, rat; D051399:Aquaporin 2; D051398:Aquaporin 1