Spatiotemporal pattern of concurrent spinal and supraspinal NF-κB expression after peripheral nerve injury.
The expression of NF-κB in the spinal cord is associated with neuropathic pain. However, little is known about its expression beyond the spinal cord. Here we examined a spatial and temporal pattern of the NF-κB expression in both spinal and supraspinal regions. After chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve, NF-κB (p65) expression was significantly increased in the ipsilateral spinal cord. In contrast, the NF-κB expression in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex was decreased with no significant differences seen in the thalamus. In the contralateral anterior cingulate cortex, the NF-κB expression was increased significantly on day 14 as compared with the sham group. In the contralateral amygdala, the NF-κB expression showed a time-dependent downregulation after CCI, which became significant on day 14. MK-801 reduced nociceptive behaviors and reversed the direction of NF-κB expression. These results indicate that the CCI-induced expression of p65 NF-κB is both time-dependent and region-specific, in areas that process both sensory-discriminative and motivational-affective dimensions of pain.


CONCLUSIONS
This article presents a spatiotemporal mapping of the NF-κB expression in spinal and supraspinal regions after peripheral nerve injury. These findings point to an involvement of NF-κB beyond the spinal cord in both the sensory discriminative and emotional affective aspects of neuropathic pain processing.
MGH Center for Translational Pain Research, Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Chiu-Wen
CW
Chou
Gordon T C
GT
Wong
Grewo
G
Lim
Shuxing
S
Wang
Michael G
MG
Irwin
Jianren
J
Mao
D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism*; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism*; D050863:Synaptotagmin I / Q000378:metabolism; D013788:Thalamus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
D016328:NF-kappa B; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D050863:Synaptotagmin I; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate