Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260, Singapore.
Eur J Pain. 2011 Sep;15(8):801.e1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpain.2011.02.002. Epub 2011 Mar 11.
Activation of the prefrontal cortex occurs during acute and chronic pain and models of experimental hyperalgesia. The present study was carried out to determine possible miRNA changes in the prefrontal cortex, after inflammatory pain induced by facial carrageenan injection in mice. miRNA microarray analyses showed significantly increased levels of miR-155 and miR-223 in the prefrontal cortex of carrageenan-injected mice. The changes were verified by real-time RT-PCR, and shown to occur bilaterally. The potential targets of the two miRNAs were predicted, and changes in two of the miRNA targets, c/ebp Beta and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) verified by real-time RT-PCR. Significantly downregulated c/ebp Beta but upregulated GCSF, accompanied by increased immunolabeling with an antibody to myeloperoxidase were found in the prefrontal cortex of facial carrageenan treated mice. It is postulated that this could lead to increased inflammation and activation of the prefrontal cortex. Further studies are necessary to determine if specific miRNAs could be useful as therapeutic molecules for pain.
前额叶皮层在急性和慢性疼痛以及实验性痛觉过敏模型中被激活。本研究旨在确定在面部角叉菜胶注射诱导的小鼠炎症痛后，前额叶皮层中是否存在 miRNA 变化。miRNA 微阵列分析显示，角叉菜胶注射小鼠前额叶皮层中 miR-155 和 miR-223 的水平显著升高。实时 RT-PCR 验证了这些变化，并显示出双侧发生。预测了这两种 miRNA 的潜在靶标，并通过实时 RT-PCR 验证了其中两种 miRNA 靶标 c/ebp Beta 和粒细胞集落刺激因子 (GCSF) 的变化。在面部角叉菜胶处理的小鼠的前额叶皮层中，发现 c/ebp Beta 显著下调但 GCSF 上调，并且髓过氧化物酶的免疫标记增加。据推测，这可能导致炎症增加和前额叶皮层激活。还需要进一步的研究来确定特定的 miRNA 是否可以作为疼痛的治疗分子。
