Department of Emergency Medicine, the second affiliated hospital, Nanchang University, Nanchang city, Jiangxi province, China.
Gastrointestinal Surgery, the second affiliated hospital, Nanchang University, Nanchang city, Jiangxi province, China.
J Chem Neuroanat. 2023 Nov;133:102327. doi: 10.1016/j.jchemneu.2023.102327. Epub 2023 Aug 25.
Neuropathic pain is a common symptom experienced by most clinical diseases at different levels, and its treatment has always been a clinical difficulty. Therefore, it is particularly important to explore new and effective treatment methods. The role of olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) in nerve injury and pain is recognized by different studies. Our previous study found that transplantation of OECs alleviated hyperalgesia in rats. However, single-cell transplantation lacks medium adhesion and support, and exerts limited analgesic effect. Therefore, on the basis of the previous study, this study investigated the effect of pain relief by co-transplanting OECs with chitosan (CS) (a biological tissue engineering material, as OECs were transplanted into the host medium) to the injured sciatic nerve. The results showed that the pain threshold of sciatic nerve injury of rats was significantly reduced, and the expression level of P2×4 receptor in the spinal cord was significantly increased. While olfactory ensheathing cells combined with chitosan (OECs+CS) transplantation could significantly relieve pain, and the analgesic effect was stronger than that of OECs transplantation alone. OECs+CS transplantation promoted the formation of sciatic nerve remyelination, improved the changes of demyelination, and promoted the repair of sciatic nerve injury more significantly. In addition, the effect of OECs+CS to down-regulate the expression of P2×4 receptor was significantly stronger than that of OECs transplantation, and exerted a better analgesic effect. These data reveal that OECs+CS have a better analgesic effect in relieving neuropathic pain induced by sciatic nerve injury, and provide a new therapeutic strategy for pain treatment.
神经病理性疼痛是大多数临床疾病在不同水平上共同存在的常见症状，其治疗一直是临床难点。因此，探索新的有效治疗方法尤为重要。嗅鞘细胞（OECs）在神经损伤和疼痛中的作用已被不同的研究证实。我们之前的研究发现，OECs 移植可减轻大鼠的痛觉过敏。然而，单细胞移植缺乏介质黏附和支持，发挥的镇痛作用有限。因此，在之前研究的基础上，本研究探讨了 OECs 与壳聚糖（CS）（一种生物组织工程材料，作为 OECs 被移植到宿主介质中）共移植对损伤坐骨神经的镇痛效果。结果表明，大鼠坐骨神经损伤的痛阈明显降低，脊髓中 P2×4 受体的表达水平明显升高。而嗅鞘细胞联合壳聚糖（OECs+CS）移植可明显缓解疼痛，且镇痛效果强于 OECs 单独移植。OECs+CS 移植促进坐骨神经髓鞘再生形成，改善脱髓鞘变化，更显著促进坐骨神经损伤修复。此外，OECs+CS 下调 P2×4 受体表达的效果明显强于 OECs 移植，发挥更好的镇痛效果。这些数据揭示了 OECs+CS 在缓解坐骨神经损伤引起的神经病理性疼痛方面具有更好的镇痛效果，为疼痛治疗提供了新的治疗策略。
