2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The effect of the serotonergic descending pain inhibitory system activation by acute noticeptive stimulation on chronic notiception in the rats.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20592448
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Social dentistry
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	ONODERA Dai Tohoku University, 大学院・歯学研究科, 大学院非常勤講師 (80312594)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	SHOJI Noriaki 東北大学, 病院, 講師 (70250800) FUKUMOTO Takahiro 北海道大学, 遺伝子病制御研究所, 助教 (50433024)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2011
Keywords	セロトニン / 下行性疼痛抑制系 / 慢性痛 / 抗うつ剤 / 三叉神経脊髄路核尾側亜核 / 延髄大縫線核
Research Abstract	This study was designed to determine the effect of the serotonergic descending pain inhibitory system activation on chronic pain model rats. Chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the infraorbital nerve (ION) reduced the escape thresholds of mechanical stimulation to the facial area innervated by ION 3-7 days after. Electrical stimulation of mental nerve ipsilaretral to CCI side increased the escape thresholds of mechanical stimulation 12h after. In the same time, expression of serotonin was upregulated in the spinal trigeminal nucleus ipsilateral to stimulus side. These results suggested that the activation of the descending pain inhibitory system by mental nerve stimulation could relieve chronic notiception in ION-CCI model rats.