Chronic pain affects ~20% of the worldwide population. The clinical management of chronic pain is mostly palliative and results in limited success. Current treatments mostly target the symptoms or neuronal signaling of chronic pain. It has been increasingly recognized that glial cells, such as microglia, and inflammatory signaling play a major role in the pathogenesis of chronic pain. Caspases ...

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes delayed secondary biochemical alterations that lead to tissue loss and associated neurological dysfunction. Up-regulation of cell cycle proteins occurs in both neurons and glia after SCI and may contribute to these changes. The present study examined the role of cell cycle activation on secondary injury after severe SCI in rat. SCI caused cell cycle protein up-re...

PURPOSE This study was designed to elucidate the role of inflammatory process in diabetic retinopathy and to investigate the effect of baicalein treatment on diabetic rat. METHODS Retinal microglial cells were identified with CD11b antibody, and retinal Müller cells were identified with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). The gene expression of interleukin (IL)-18, tumor necrosis factor (...

BACKGROUND Microglial cells play important roles in coordinating the inflammatory brain responses to hypoxia and trauma. Ionotropic P2X receptors and metabotropic P2Y receptors (P2YRs) expressed in microglia can be activated by extracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) derived from damaged cells or astrocytes, and participate in the signaling pathways evoked in brain insult. Although several i...

Increasing evidence suggests that inflammatory processes in the central nervous system that are mediated by microglial activation play a key role in neurodegeneration. Fisetin, a plant flavonol commonly found in fruits and vegetables, is frequently added to nutritional supplements due to its antioxidant properties. In the present study, treatment with fisetin inhibited microglial cell migration...

Chronic microglial activation endangers neuronal survival through the release of various pro-inflammatory and neurotoxic factors. As such, negative regulators of microglial activation have been considered as potential therapeutic candidates to reduce the risk of neurodegeneration associated with inflammation. Uncaria rhynchophylla (U. rhynchophylla) is a traditional oriental herb that has been ...

Changes in expression of P2X receptors (P2X1-7) during postnatal development of the rat cerebellum are described. At P3, immunoreactivity (ir) to all the P2X receptors, except for P2X3 receptors, was found in Purkinje cells and deep cerebellar nuclei, P2X5-ir being most prominent. Granular and microglial cells were labeled for P2X5 (weakly) and P2X4 receptors, respectively. At P7, expression of...

The antigen presentation to lymphocytes in brain occurs in two steps. Initially it happens at perivascular spaces by perivascular microglia/macrophage population and finally at the site of inflammation deep into brain parenchyma by the resident microglia. But recent evidence challanges the existing notion of involvement of distinct and different cells at these sites. Studies have shown that man...

BACKGROUND Injury to the brain induces dramatic local changes in gene expression, cellular morphology and behavior. Activation of microglial cells occurs as an early event after central nervous system (CNS) injury, but it has not been determined whether such activation plays a causal role in neuronal death. We have investigated this question using an excitotoxin-mediated brain injury model syst...