• Beatrice Mihaela Radu, Adina Daniela Iancu, Diana Ionela Dumitrescu, Maria Luisa Flonta, and Mihai Radu.
• Department of Neurological, Neuropsychological, Morphological and Movement Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
• Cell. Mol. Neurobiol. 2013 Mar 1; 33 (2): 187-96.

AbstractPharmacological therapies in type 1 diabetes for efficient control of glycemia and changes in pain alterations due to diabetic neuropathy are a continuous challenge. Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) from dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons is one of the main pharmacological targets in diabetes, and its ligand capsaicin can be a promising compound for blood-glucose control. Our goal is to elucidate the effect of intraperitoneal (i.p.) capsaicin administration in type 1 diabetic mice against TRPV1 receptors from pancreatic DRG primary afferent neurons. A TCR(+/-)/Ins-HA(+/-) diabetic mice (dTg) was used, and patch-clamp and immunofluorescence microscopy measurements have been performed on thoracic T(9)-T(12) DRG neurons. Capsaicin (800 μg/kg, i.p. three successive days) administration in the late-phase diabetes reduces blood-glucose levels, partly reverses the TRPV1 current density and recovery time constant, without any effect on TRPV1 expression general pattern, in dTg mice. A TRPV1 hypoalgesia profile was observed in late-phase diabetes, which was partly reversed to normoalgesic profile upon capsaicin i.p. administration. According to the soma dimensions of the thoracic DRG neurons, a detailed analysis of the TRPV1 expression upon capsaicin i.p. treatment was done, and the proportion of large A-fiber neurons expressing TRPV1 increased in dTg capsaicin-treated mice. In conclusion, the benefits of low-dose capsaicin intraperitoneal treatment in late-phase type-1 diabetes should be further exploited.

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