National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Norway.
Neurosci Lett. 2010 Apr 12;473(3):212-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.02.049. Epub 2010 Feb 26.
Several variants of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene have recently been linked to pain sensitivity. In the present study, electrophysiological field potential recordings from the dorsal horn in rats were used to examine the spinal effect of reduced COMT activity. The data demonstrated that 30 mg/kg of the COMT inhibitor OR 486 reduced spinal nociceptive responses to painful stimuli (p<or=0.01, OR 486 vs. vehicle) and attenuated the expression of spinal long-term potentiation (LTP), an often studied model for central sensitization (p<or=0.01, HFS vs. HFS+OR 486). Our findings suggest that low COMT activity may have an antinociceptive effect in the spinal cord.
几种儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶 (COMT) 基因的变体最近与疼痛敏感性相关联。在本研究中，使用大鼠背角的电生理场电位记录来检查 COMT 活性降低对脊髓的影响。数据表明，30mg/kg 的 COMT 抑制剂 OR 486 降低了对疼痛刺激的脊髓伤害性反应（p<or=0.01，OR 486 与载体相比），并减弱了脊髓长时程增强（LTP）的表达，这是一种常用于研究中枢敏化的模型（p<or=0.01，HFS 与 HFS+OR 486 相比）。我们的研究结果表明，低 COMT 活性可能对脊髓具有镇痛作用。
