Abstract
In the fetal, infant, and adult rat, injury induces a well-defined behavioral response
and induces c-fos expression in the spinal cord dorsal horn. There is more limited
information about the processing of noxious stimulation in the infant brain. We describe
here the appearance of the Fos protein in the brain of fetal and infant rats following
formalin-induced injury. Regions were chosen for analysis with a special focus on
brain loci that express c-fos in the adult. No Fos positive cells were found in the
brains of fetuses; newborns did not show increased Fos expression after formalin injection
in any structure examined. At 3 and 14 days of age, there was a significant increase
in Fos staining induced by formalin in the ventral lateral medulla. In contrast, paraventricular
and medial dorsal nuclei of the thalamus, the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus,
and periaqueductal gray of the midbrain showed increased levels of Fos protein only
at 14 days of age. We hypothesize that this developmental pattern is related not only
to the maturation of pain perception but also to development of autonomic and defensive
reactions to pain in the infant.
Perspective
Because the infant processes pain differently than the adult, knowledge of those differences
informs pediatric clinical practice. Using Fos expression as a marker of neural activity
in the rat, we show that the pattern of brain activation is immature at birth but
is in place by 14 days of age.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 13, 2010
Accepted:
September 16,
2010
Received in revised form:
July 30,
2010
Received:
June 2,
2010
Footnotes
Supported by NIH grants DA007341 and DA000325 to G.A.B.
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
