Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064, United States.
Center for the Neurobiology of Stress Resilience and Psychiatric Disorders, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064, United States.
Neuroscience. 2022 Nov 1;503:17-27. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.09.007. Epub 2022 Sep 11.
We studied the effects of inflammatory pain on working memory and correlated the pain effects with changes in dendritic spine density and glutamate signaling in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of male and female mice. Injection of Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) into the hind paw modeled inflammatory pain. The CFA equally decreased the mechanical thresholds in both sexes. The density of dendritic spines, as a marker for neuronal input, increased on the dendrites of both, pyramidal cells and interneurons in males but only on the dendrites of interneurons in CFA injected females. Next, we injected virus with glutamate sensor (pAAV.hSyn.iGluSnFr) into the mPFC and used fiber photometry to record glutamate signaling during Y-maze spontaneous alternations test, which is a test for working memory in rodents. The detected fluorescent signal was higher during correct alternations when compared to incorrect alternations in both sexes. The CFA injection did not change the pattern of glutamate fluorescence during the test but the female mice made fewer incorrect alternations than their male counterparts. Furthermore, while the CFA injection decreased the expression of the glutamate transporter VGlut1 on the soma of mPFC neurons in both sexes, the decrease was sex dependent. We concluded that inflammatory pain, which increases sensory input into the mPFC neurons, may impair working memory by altering the glutamate signaling. The glutamate deficit that develops as a result of the pain is more pronounced in male mice in comparison to female mice.
我们研究了炎性疼痛对工作记忆的影响,并将疼痛的影响与内侧前额叶皮层(mPFC)中树突棘密度和谷氨酸信号的变化相关联,分别在雄性和雌性小鼠中进行研究。向小鼠后爪注射完全弗氏佐剂(CFA)可模拟炎性疼痛。CFA 同样降低了两性的机械阈值。作为神经元输入标志物的树突棘密度增加了,这在雄性的锥体神经元和中间神经元的树突上均有体现,但在 CFA 注射的雌性中间神经元的树突上仅体现。接下来,我们将带有谷氨酸传感器(pAAV.hSyn.iGluSnFr)的病毒注射到 mPFC 中,并使用光纤光度法在 Y 型迷宫自发交替测试中记录谷氨酸信号,这是一种用于检测啮齿动物工作记忆的测试。与错误交替相比,在正确交替时检测到的荧光信号更高。CFA 注射并未改变测试期间的谷氨酸荧光模式,但雌性小鼠的错误交替次数少于雄性小鼠。此外,尽管 CFA 注射降低了两性 mPFC 神经元胞体上的谷氨酸转运蛋白 VGlut1 的表达,但这种降低具有性别依赖性。我们得出的结论是,炎性疼痛增加了传入 mPFC 神经元的感觉输入,可能通过改变谷氨酸信号来损害工作记忆。由于疼痛而产生的谷氨酸不足在雄性小鼠中比在雌性小鼠中更为明显。