Novel roles of muscle fascia as a nociceptive sensory tissue.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24659106
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental physiology (including Physical medicine and Nutritional physiology)
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: TAGUCHI Toru 名古屋大学, 環境医学研究所, 助教 (90464156)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KATANOSAKA Kimiaki 名古屋大学, 環境医学研究所, 助教 (50335006) ; HAYASHI Koei 名古屋大学, 環境医学研究所, 研究員 (00579592)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 筋・筋膜性疼痛 / 侵害受容器 / 痛み / 筋－筋膜間相互作用 / 感覚センサー / 光遺伝学 / チャネルロドプシン / サルコペニア

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Myofascial pain, such as stiff neck and low back pain, is a chronic refractory disease which is common in developed countries. Muscle fascia has long been considered to be important as the source of pain although there was no experimental evidence. In this project, we demonstrated that nociceptive nerve fibers were found to be densely distributed in the rat CF. Nociceptors responding to mechanical, chemical (bradykinin), and heat stimuli exist in the CF. Painful stimulus to the CF induced neuronal activation of superficial layers in the spinal dorsal horn. These results indicate that the "muscle fascia,” a tissue often overlooked in pain research, can be an important source of nociception and pain in normal conditions. Roles of muscle fascia in hyperalgesic conditions are to be studied in future.

Free Research Field

環境生理学（含体力医学・栄養生理学）