Choi Songyeon, Kim Kyeongmin, Kwon Minjee, Bai Sun Joon, Cha Myeounghoon, Lee Bae Hwan
Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Department of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Front Mol Neurosci. 2022 Apr 13;15:815945. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2022.815945. eCollection 2022.
The insular cortex (IC) is known to process pain information. However, analgesic effects of glial inhibition in the IC have not yet been explored. The aim of this study was to investigate pain alleviation effects after neuroglia inhibition in the IC during the early or late phase of pain development. The effects of glial inhibitors in early or late phase inhibition in neuropathic pain were characterized in astrocytes and microglia expressions in the IC of an animal model of neuropathic pain. Changes in withdrawal responses during different stages of inhibition were compared, and morphological changes in glial cells with purinergic receptor expressions were analyzed. Inhibition of glial cells had an analgesic effect that persisted even after drug withdrawal. Both GFAP and CD11b/c expressions were decreased after injection of glial inhibitors. Morphological alterations of astrocytes and microglia were observed with expression changes of purinergic receptors. These findings indicate that inhibition of neuroglia activity in the IC alleviates chronic pain, and that purinergic receptors in glial cells are closely related to chronic pain development.
已知岛叶皮质（IC）可处理疼痛信息。然而，岛叶皮质中胶质细胞抑制的镇痛作用尚未得到探索。本研究的目的是调查在疼痛发展的早期或晚期，岛叶皮质中神经胶质细胞抑制后的疼痛缓解效果。在神经性疼痛动物模型的岛叶皮质中，通过星形胶质细胞和小胶质细胞的表达来表征胶质细胞抑制剂在神经性疼痛早期或晚期抑制中的作用。比较了抑制不同阶段的撤药反应变化，并分析了具有嘌呤能受体表达的胶质细胞的形态变化。胶质细胞的抑制具有镇痛作用，即使在停药后仍持续存在。注射胶质细胞抑制剂后，GFAP和CD11b/c的表达均降低。观察到星形胶质细胞和小胶质细胞的形态改变以及嘌呤能受体的表达变化。这些发现表明，抑制岛叶皮质中的神经胶质细胞活性可减轻慢性疼痛，并且胶质细胞中的嘌呤能受体与慢性疼痛的发展密切相关。
