Abstract
This study examined the contribution of nerve injury alone or nerve injury with signs of neuropathic pain to alteration of kappa opioid receptor (KOR) mRNA expression. Two groups of mice, both of them were subjected to unilateral transection of the inferior and superior caudal trunks at the S1spinal nerve, were compared with respect to KOR mRNA expression by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. One group showed exclusive pain behavior (PB+) as mechanical allodynia, and the other group exhibited no enhanced sensitivity to innocuous mechanical stimulation to the tail (PB-). Expression of total KOR and variants B and C mRNA increased ipsilaterally in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of PB+ mice, whereas KOR variant A mRNA was not detected in DRG. These results show that KOR mRNA expression differs between PB+ and PB- groups of mice after nerve injury, and suggest an association of KOR expression with mechanical allodynia. ũ 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 163-166 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Neuroscience Letters |
| Volume | 291 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 22 2000 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by DA11190 and DA 11806 and in part by a postdoctoral fellowship from Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. We wish to thank Dr Donald A. Simone for his helpful suggestions during the preparation of this manuscript. We also thank Dr Jing Bi's technical help.
Keywords
- Allodynia
- Dorsal root ganglia
- Gene regulation
- Kappa opioid receptor
- Nerve injury
- Neuropathic pain
- Opioid
- Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction