Neuropathic pain is still an extremely important problem in today's medicine because opioids, which are commonly used to reduce pain, have limited efficacy in this type of pathology. Therefore, complementary therapy is needed. Our experiments were performed in rats to evaluate the contribution of the purinergic system, especially P2X4 receptor (P2X4R), in the modulation of glia activation and, ...

BACKGROUND Weights assigned to comorbidities to predict mortality may vary based on the type of index disease and advances in the management of comorbidities. We aimed to develop a modified Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) in incident hemodialysis patients (mCCI-IHD), thereby improving risk stratification for mortality. METHODS Data on 24,738 Koreans who received their first hemodialysis trea...

OBJECTIVE To explore the effects of inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway on chronic neuropathic pain (CNP) and spinal microglia in a rat model of chronic constriction injury (CCI). METHODS Male SD rats were assigned into control, sham, CCI, wortmannin, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and wortmannin-positive control groups. Paw withdrawal mechanical threshold (PWMT) and thermal withdrawal late...

introduction: it has been demonstrated that the adrenal medullary transplants into the spinal subarachnoid space can alleviate neuropathic pain behaviors. the aim of the present study was to test the possibility that histological changes of the sciatic nerve in a neuropathic model as well as sensory dysfunction are repaired by adrenal medullary transplantation. material and methods: left sciati...

Methods. Lumbar intrathecal catheters were implanted in male Sprague–Dawley rats and a CCI model was established. Thermal and mechanical nociceptive thresholds were assessed with paw withdrawal latency (PWL) to radiant heat and von Frey filaments. The phosphorothioate-modified antisense ODNs to p65 subunit of NF-kB were administered intrathecally on each of five consecutive days post-CCI. Nucle...

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of accompanying comorbidities on survival in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients. A total of 221 patients with stage IIIBIV NSLC between May 1998 and April 2009 were included. Survival data was analyzed according to age (those younger than 65 and those 65 and older) and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) scores. Eighty-six (39%) patien...

BACKGROUND In the peripheral nerve, pro-inflammatory matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 performs essential functions in the acute response to injury. Whether MMP-9 activity contributes to late-phase injury or whether MMP-9 expression or activity after nerve injury is sexually dimorphic remains unknown. METHODS Patterns of MMP-9 expression, activity and excretion were assessed in a model of pain...

INTRODUCTION Erectile dysfunction (ED) has emerged progressively as a sentinel marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The correlation between ED and the burden arising from multiple comorbid conditions has been incompletely analyzed. AIM Assess whether erectile function, defined with the International Index of Erectile Function-Erectile Function (IIEF-EF) domain score, is associated with hea...

The Botox-A impact on the expression of SNAP-25 protein in rat chronic sciatic nerve pain model was assessed and the mechanism of inhibitory neurotransmitter imbalance was studied. A chronic constriction injury (CCI) model consisted of 30 healthy male rats. The rats were randomly divided into the sham-operated group, CCI group and BoNT/A intervention group, and during 1, 7 and 14 days we conduc...