Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Unit of Human Anatomy, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
J Anat. 2009 Nov;215(5):498-505. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2009.01143.x. Epub 2009 Sep 9.
Aquaporins are a family of water channel proteins involved in water homeostasis in several tissues. Current knowledge of aquaporin expression in the nervous system is very limited. Therefore the first aim of this study was to assess, by immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting analysis, the presence and localization of aquaporin-2 in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia of naïve adult rats. In addition, we evaluated aquaporin-2 expression in response to chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve, a model of neuropathic pain. Our results showed that aquaporin-2 expression was not detectable either in the spinal cord or the dorsal root ganglia of naïve rats. However, we showed for the first time an increase of aquaporin-2 expression in response to chronic constriction injury treatment in small-diameter dorsal root ganglia neurons but no expression in the lumbar spinal cord. These data support the hypothesis that aquaporin-2 expression is involved in inflammatory neuropathic nerve injuries, although its precise role remains to be determined.
水通道蛋白是一组参与多种组织水稳态的水通道蛋白。目前对神经系统中水通道蛋白表达的了解非常有限。因此，本研究的首要目的是通过免疫组织化学和免疫印迹分析评估水通道蛋白-2在未受伤成年大鼠脊髓和背根神经节中的存在和定位。此外，我们还评估了水通道蛋白-2在坐骨神经慢性缩窄性损伤（一种神经病理性疼痛模型）后的表达情况。我们的结果表明，水通道蛋白-2在未受伤大鼠的脊髓或背根神经节中均无法检测到。然而，我们首次证明了在慢性缩窄性损伤治疗后，小直径背根神经节神经元中水通道蛋白-2的表达增加，但在腰椎脊髓中没有表达。这些数据支持水通道蛋白-2表达参与炎症性神经病理性神经损伤的假说，尽管其确切作用仍有待确定。
