Department of Paediatric Dentistry, School of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, No. 145 West Changle Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
J Dent Res. 2010 May;89(5):532-6. doi: 10.1177/0022034510363231. Epub 2010 Mar 23.
The functional impact of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)ergic neurons in nociceptive transmission of the spinal trigeminal nucleus is not fully established. Using both the glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)(67)-green fluorescence protein (GFP) knock-in mouse and the tooth pulp stimulation model, we performed double-immunofluorescent histochemistry to determine the characteristics of GABAergic neuron activation in the spinal trigeminal nucleus. The number of Fos-positive GABAergic neuronal profiles was significantly increased 2 hrs after tooth pulp stimulation. The Fos/GFP double-labeled neurons were mainly present in superficial laminae of the spinal trigeminal subnucleus interpolaris-caudalis transition (Vi/Vc) and subnucleus caudalis (Vc) on the side ipsilateral to the stimulation. Subsequently, the number of double-labeled neurons decreased gradually and became comparable with that of the controls by 48 hrs. Our results provide direct morphological evidence that a subset of GABAergic neurons in the spinal trigeminal system was activated during tooth pulp stimulation.
GABA（γ-氨基丁酸）能神经元在三叉神经脊束核伤害性传递中的功能影响尚未完全确定。使用谷氨酸脱羧酶（GAD）（67）-绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）基因敲入小鼠和牙髓刺激模型，我们进行了双重免疫荧光组织化学，以确定三叉神经脊束核中 GABA 能神经元激活的特征。牙髓刺激后 2 小时，Fos 阳性 GABA 能神经元数量显著增加。Fos/GFP 双标记神经元主要存在于刺激侧三叉神经脊束核间极尾核（Vi/Vc）和尾核（Vc）的浅层。随后，双标记神经元的数量逐渐减少，48 小时后与对照组相当。我们的结果提供了直接的形态学证据，表明牙髓刺激过程中三叉神经系统中的一部分 GABA 能神经元被激活。
