School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, HKSRA, Hong Kong, China.
Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2012 Jul;24(7):593-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2012.01951.x.
Visceral hypersensitivity (VHS) is one of the most important characteristics of functional gastrointestinal disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Stress, whether physical or psychological, is known to be a crucial factor for inducing and maintaining visceral sensitivity in humans and rodents, but how stress induces VHS is not fully understood. In a recent study published in Neurogastroenterology and Motility, Wouters et al. demonstrate, for the first time, that maternal separation induces activation of periaqueductal gray (PAG), the hippocampus and the somatosensory cortex concomitantly with increased deactivation of the pre-frontal cortex. The findings provide insight on the role of maternal separation in inducing regional cerebral blood flow changes and cerebral plasticity. These novel insights on the role of central activation in the modulation of stress-induced VHS add to our growing understanding of the mechanisms that underlie VHS and suggest potential new drug development targets in stress-related diseases, including IBS.
内脏高敏性（VHS）是功能性胃肠病的重要特征之一，包括肠易激综合征（IBS）。压力，无论是身体上还是心理上的，都被认为是在人类和啮齿动物中引起和维持内脏敏感性的关键因素，但压力如何引起 VHS 尚不完全清楚。在最近发表在《神经胃肠病学和动力学期刊》上的一项研究中，Wouters 等人首次证明，母婴分离会导致中脑导水管周围灰质（PAG）、海马体和躯体感觉皮层的激活，同时前额叶皮层的去激活增加。这些发现提供了关于母婴分离在诱导区域性脑血流变化和大脑可塑性中的作用的见解。中枢激活在调节应激诱导的 VHS 中的作用的这些新的见解增加了我们对 VHS 潜在机制的理解，并为应激相关疾病（包括 IBS）中的潜在新药开发靶点提供了思路。
