Abstract
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.
Perspective
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.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 31, 2010
Accepted:
March 24,
2010
Received in revised form:
March 2,
2010
Received:
February 3,
2010
Footnotes
Supported by NIH RO1 grants DE18214, DE18538, and NS45681.
The authors claim no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
