Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, China.
Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Analgesia Application Technology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221004, China.
J Neurosci. 2021 Dec 1;41(48):9988-10003. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0881-21.2021. Epub 2021 Oct 12.
Long-term limb nerve injury often leads to mirror-image pain (MIP), an abnormal pain sensation in the limb contralateral to the injury. Although it is clear that MIP is mediated in part by central nociception processing, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a key brain region that receives relayed peripheral nociceptive information from the contralateral limb. In this study, we induced MIP in male mice, in which a unilateral chronic constrictive injury of the sciatic nerve (CCI) induced a decreased nociceptive threshold in both hind limbs and an increased number of c-Fos-expressing neurons in the ACC both contralateral and ipsilateral to the injured limb. Using viral-mediated projection mapping, we observed that a portion of ACC neurons formed monosynaptic connections with contralateral ACC neurons. Furthermore, the number of cross-callosal projection ACC neurons that exhibited c-Fos signal was increased in MIP-expressing mice, suggesting enhanced transmission between ACC neurons of the two hemispheres. Moreover, selective inhibition of the cross-callosal projection ACC neurons contralateral to the injured limb normalized the nociceptive sensation of the uninjured limb without affecting the increased nociceptive sensation of the injured limb in CCI mice. In contrast, inhibition of the non-cross-callosal projection ACC neurons contralateral to the injury normalized the nociceptive sensation of the injured limb without affecting the MIP exhibited in the uninjured limb. These results reveal a circuit mechanism, namely, the cross-callosal projection of ACC between two hemispheres, that contributes to MIP and possibly other forms of contralateral migration of pain sensation. Mirror-image pain (MIP) refers to the increased pain sensitivity of the contralateral body part in patients with chronic pain. This pathology requires central processing, yet the mechanisms are less known. Here, we demonstrate that the cross-callosal projection neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) contralateral to the injury contribute to MIP exhibited in the uninjured limb, but do not affect nociceptive sensation of the injured limb. In contrast, the non-cross-callosal projection neurons in the ACC contralateral to the injury contribute to nociceptive sensation of the injured limb, but do not affect MIP exhibited in the uninjured limb. Our study depicts a novel cross-callosal projection of ACC that contributes to MIP, providing a central mechanism for MIP in chronic pain state.
长期肢体神经损伤常导致镜像疼痛(MIP),即损伤对侧肢体的异常疼痛感觉。尽管很明显 MIP 部分是由中枢伤害感受处理介导的,但潜在机制仍知之甚少。扣带前回(ACC)是一个关键的脑区,它接收来自对侧肢体的中继外周伤害感受信息。在这项研究中,我们在雄性小鼠中诱导 MIP,其中单侧坐骨神经慢性缩窄性损伤(CCI)导致双侧后肢的伤害感受阈值降低,以及对侧和同侧 ACC 中表达 c-Fos 的神经元数量增加。使用病毒介导的投射映射,我们观察到一部分 ACC 神经元与对侧 ACC 神经元形成单突触连接。此外,在表达 MIP 的小鼠中,表现出 c-Fos 信号的交叉胼胝体投射 ACC 神经元的数量增加,表明两个半球的 ACC 神经元之间的传递增强。此外,选择性抑制损伤侧对侧的交叉胼胝体投射 ACC 神经元可使未损伤侧的伤害感受正常化,而不影响 CCI 小鼠中损伤侧伤害感受的增加。相比之下,抑制损伤对侧非交叉胼胝体投射 ACC 神经元可使损伤侧的伤害感受正常化,而不影响未损伤侧的 MIP。这些结果揭示了一个电路机制,即两个半球之间的 ACC 交叉胼胝体投射,有助于 MIP 以及可能其他形式的疼痛感觉对侧迁移。镜像疼痛(MIP)是指慢性疼痛患者对侧身体部位的疼痛敏感性增加。这种病理学需要中枢处理,但机制知之甚少。在这里,我们证明损伤对侧扣带前回(ACC)的交叉胼胝体投射神经元有助于未损伤侧 MIP 的表达,但不影响损伤侧的伤害感受。相比之下,损伤对侧 ACC 的非交叉胼胝体投射神经元有助于损伤侧的伤害感受,但不影响未损伤侧的 MIP。我们的研究描绘了 ACC 的一种新的交叉胼胝体投射,有助于 MIP,为慢性疼痛状态下的 MIP 提供了一个中枢机制。