The use of multiple loose ligations of the rat sciatic nerve has been proposed as a model for the study of allodynia and hyperalgesia. This pain hypersensitivity results from both an increase in the peripheral and central sensitization. The evidence indicating that the development of neuropathic thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia requires activation of spinal cord NMDA receptors. NMD...

The use of multiple loose ligations of the rat sciatic nerve has been proposed as a model for the study of allodynia and hyperalgesia. This pain hypersensitivity results from both an increase in the peripheral and central sensitization. The evidence indicating that the development of neuropathic thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia requires activation of spinal cord NMDA receptors. NMD...

Neuronal plasticity along the pathway for sensory transmission including the spinal cord and cortex plays an important role in chronic pain, including inflammatory and neuropathic pain. While recent studies indicate that microglia in the spinal cord are involved in neuropathic pain, a systematic study has not been performed in other regions of the central nervous system (CNS). In the present st...

STUDY DESIGN An in vivo rat model of transient cervical nerve root compression. OBJECTIVES To investigate the potential for cervical nerve root compression to produce behavioral hypersensitivity and examine its dependence on compression. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Clinically, nerve root injury has been hypothesized as a potential source of neck pain, particularly because cervical nerve root...

introduction spinal tumours may be classified in three groups: 1) extradural, 2) intradural extramedullary and 3) intramedullary spinal cord tumours. intradural extramedullary tumours arise from the leptomeninges or nerve roots and include schwannomas. a schwannoma is usually a firm grey-whitish tumour growing near a nerve trunk or ramus. it can be separated from the nerve without damaging neur...

It has been proposed that substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) are upregulated in low-threshold myelinated primary afferents after certain types of nerve injury, and that release of substance P from these afferents contributes to the resulting tactile allodynia. To test this hypothesis, we looked for neuropeptides in Abeta primary afferent terminals in the ipsilateral gracile ...

STUDY DESIGN Behavioral and immunohistochemical analysis in rat models of persistent and transient allodynia. OBJECTIVES To examine separate cervical nerve root injuries (compression, transection) for producing behavioral hypersensitivity and investigate spinal neuropeptides to understand relationships to pain symptoms. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Mechanical cervical nerve root injury can be...

Increased glutamate availability in the spinal cord and primary afferent nerves plays an important role in acute and chronic pain. Afferent ectopic discharges from the site of nerve injury constitute a source of abnormal sensory input to the spinal dorsal horn. The ectopic afferent activity is largely responsible for the development of hypersensitivity of dorsal horn neurons and neuropathic pai...

We investigated whether uninjured cutaneous C-fiber nociceptors in primates develop abnormal responses after partial denervation of the skin. Partial denervation was induced by tightly ligating spinal nerve L6 that innervates the dorsum of the foot. Using an in vitro skin-nerve preparation, we recorded from uninjured single afferent nerve fibers in the superficial peroneal nerve. Recordings wer...

Chronic pain after nerve injury is often accompanied by hypersensitivity to mechanical stimuli, yet whether this reflects altered input, altered processing, or both remains unclear. Spinal nerve ligation or transection results in hypersensitivity to mechanical stimuli in skin innervated by adjacent dorsal root ganglia, but no previous study has quantified the changes in receptive field properti...