| Budget Amount *help |
¥18,850,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,350,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥6,370,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,470,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥7,930,000 (Direct Cost: ¥6,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,830,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Peripheral sensory impulses produced by stimuli to the skin are transmitted to the spinal dorsal horn and recognized as touch and pain in the brain. In this study, we established a 3-dimensional system of neural network in the spinal cord by two-photon fluorescence microscope and functionally and morphologically analyzed the network in transgenic mice expressing fluorescent proteins.
We could observe dozens of neurons in the spinal dorsal horn in response to a stimulus to the skin and made stimulus-response maps. While neurons in the superficial layer responded to heat and mechanical stimuli, ones in the deeper layer responded to touch.
We also revealed that synapses were newly formed on neurites in the dorsal horn in inflammatory animal model and that the increase in synapses was blocked by glutamate antagonists. Thus we think that the research plans proposed by this grant have been achieved sufficiently.
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