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.
Chou
Chiu-Wen
CW
MGH Center for Translational Pain Research, Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Wong
Gordon T C
GT
Lim
Grewo
G
Wang
Shuxing
S
Irwin
Michael G
MG
Mao
Jianren
J
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