Department of Anesthesia, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
Mol Med Rep. 2012 Jun;5(6):1423-7. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2012.829. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
In a previous study, we showed that a deep thoracic incision induces the segmental upregulation of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in the spinal cord. However, whether the cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are also activated in response to surgical incision remains to be determined. The present study aimed to investigate the expression pattern of TNF-α and IL-6 in the spinal cord following a deep thoracic incision. After surgical incision, the mRNA levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in the thoracic spinal cord were transiently upregulated as determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. However, the activation of IL-6 was detected at 1 h postoperatively, which was earlier compared to that of TNF-α, observed at 6 h postoperatively. The activated TNF-α was mainly localized in the neurons, but not in microglia or astrocytes as determined by immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. However, the increased IL-6-immunoreactivity was mainly expressed in blood vessels. The differential upregulation of TNF-α and IL-6 induced by incision suggests that the proinflammatory cytokines may play different roles in the development of surgical pain.
在之前的研究中，我们表明深部胸壁切开术会引起脊髓中白细胞介素-1β（IL-1β）的节段性上调。然而，针对手术切口是否还会激活肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）和白细胞介素-6（IL-6）这两种细胞因子，目前仍有待确定。本研究旨在探讨深部胸壁切开术后脊髓中 TNF-α和 IL-6 的表达模式。通过实时聚合酶链反应（PCR）检测，手术切开后，胸段脊髓中 TNF-α和 IL-6 的 mRNA 水平短暂上调。然而，与 TNF-α相比，IL-6 的激活更早，在术后 1 小时即可检测到。通过免疫组织化学和共聚焦显微镜检测，活化的 TNF-α主要定位于神经元，而不是小胶质细胞或星形胶质细胞。然而，增加的 IL-6 免疫反应性主要在血管中表达。切开诱导的 TNF-α和 IL-6 的差异上调表明，促炎细胞因子在手术疼痛的发展中可能发挥不同的作用。
