383 TRANSMEMBRANE TNFA-MEDIATED SIGNALING IN MICROGLIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR NEUROPATHIC PAIN

Purinergic signaling in microglia in the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain

Nerve injury often causes debilitating chronic pain, referred to as neuropathic pain, which is refractory to currently available analgesics including morphine. Many reports indicate that activated spinal microglia evoke neuropathic pain. The P2X4 receptor (P2X4R), a subtype of ionotropic ATP receptors, is upregulated in spinal microglia after nerve injury by several factors, including CC chemok...

P2Y12 receptor upregulation in activated microglia is a gateway of p38 signaling and neuropathic pain.

Microglia in the spinal cord may play an important role in the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. A metabotropic ATP receptor, P2Y(12), has been shown to be expressed in spinal microglia constitutively and be involved in chemotaxis. Activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) occurs in spinal microglia after nerve injury and may be related to the production of cytoki...

Ectopic Discharge: Implications for Neuropathic Pain

7 8 Yifat Kovalsky*, Ron Amir and Marshall Devor 9 10 Department of Cell and Developmental Biology 11 Institute of Life Sciences and 12 Center for Research on Pain 13 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 14 Jerusalem 91904, Israel 15 16 Running head: Subthreshold oscillations and spike discharge 17 No. of figs and tables: 8 figs., 1 table No supplemental material 18 19 20 21 * Corresponding autho...

Microglia in the spinal cord and neuropathic pain

In contrast to physiological pain, pathological pain is not dependent on the presence of tissue-damaging stimuli. One type of pathological pain - neuropathic pain - is often a consequence of nerve injury or of diseases such as diabetes. Neuropathic pain can be agonizing, can persist over long periods and is often resistant to known painkillers. A growing body of evidence shows that many patholo...

IFN-γ receptor signaling mediates spinal microglia activation driving neuropathic pain