Acute myocardial ischemia up-regulates nociceptin/orphanin FQ in dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord of rats
- 作者：Zheng Guo ; Tai-Ping Yao ; Jin-Ping Wang ; Jian-Ying Ding
- 关键词：Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) ; Dorsal root ganglion ; Spinal dorsal horn ; Myocardial ischemia ; Coronary artery occlusion
- 刊名：Neuroscience Letters
- 出版年：2008
- 期刊代码：52_03043940
- 类别：neu
- 出版时间：15 March 2008
- 卷：433
- 期：3
- 页码：274-278
- 文件大小：901 K
摘要
Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) possesses modulatory effects on somatic noxious signals in spinal cord, while the potential role in visceral nociception remains elusive. We designed this study to investigate the hypothesis that cardiac nociceptive signals from acute ischemic myocardium to the spinal cord are transmitted or modulated by mechanisms including N/OFQ. We examined the changes of N/OFQ and its mRNA in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord of upper thoracic segments innervating the heart of rats. Thoracic epidural anesthesia was performed to confirm neural mechanism underlying the changes. We observed that selective coronary artery occlusion significantly up-regulated N/OFQ and ppN/OFQ mRNA in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord. Thoracic epidural anesthesia abolished the changes in the expression of N/OFQ and its mRNA. The observations indicate that cardiac noxious neural afferent drive is responsible for the up-regulation of N/OFQ in the primary afferent neurons and intrinsic spinal neurons.