• Yan-Yan Sun, Li Li, Xiao-Hua Liu, Nan Gu, Hai-Long Dong, and Lize Xiong.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, People's Republic of China.
• Mol Brain. 2012 Jan 1;5:23.

BackgroundThe Notch signaling pathway has been shown to be involved in the development of the nervous system. Recent studies showed that Notch receptors and ligands are also expressed in the nervous system of adult animals. However, whether the Notch signaling pathway has a function in adults is not fully understood. The present study is designed to investigate the function of the Notch signaling pathway in nociceptive transmission, especially during neuropathic pain in adult rats.ResultsWe found that the Notch intracellular domain (NICD) is expressed in the DRG (Dorsal Root Ganglia), sciatic nerve and spinal cord in normal rats, and is upregulated in the sciatic nerve and spinal cord after spared nerve injury (SNI). Moreover, we used the γ-secretase (a key enzyme of the Notch signaling pathway) inhibitor DAPT to observe the effect of the Notch signaling pathway after SNI. We found that intrathecal DAPT significantly increased paw withdrawal thermal latency and mechanical threshold. Mechanical hyperalgesia occurring after SNI could be significantly reversed by DAPT in a dose-dependent manner.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the Notch signaling pathway participates in the induction and maintenance of neuropathic pain, which indicates that the Notch pathway maybe a potential drug target for neuropathic pain treatment.

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