Neuroscience letters
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2002
Capsaicin sensitive afferents mediate the development of heat hyperalgesia and hindpaw edema after sciatic section in rats.
Sciatic section in rats evokes chronic hyperalgesia, autotomy pain behavior, and hindpaw edema, a constellation resembling complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in man. Glucocorticoid treatment inhibits these sequelae of sciatic section and also blocks neurogenic extravasation. ⋯ Now, we show that pre-emptive destruction of the small diameter fibers prevents neurogenic extravasation, and prevented the development of heat hyperalgesia and hindpaw edema after sciatic section. Thus, capsaicin sensitive primary afferent neurons which release SP are required for the development of heat hyperalgesia and hindpaw edema in this animal model of CRPS.
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2002
Dipolar modelling of the scalp evoked potentials to painful contact heat stimulation of the human skin.
Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) were collected in 12 healthy subjects by stimulating the forearm skin with a couple of thermodes at a painful intensity. The stimulated area was 628 mm(2) and the repetition rate was 0.1 Hz. The electroencephalogram was recorded by 31 electrodes placed on the scalp according to an extended 10-20 System. ⋯ This dipolar model is very similar to that previously described to explain the topography of evoked potentials to radiant heat stimulation by laser pulses. Since laser stimuli activate the nociceptive fibres, the strong similarity of the cerebral dipoles activated by contact heat stimuli and by laser pulses suggests that only nociceptive inputs are involved in the scalp painful CHEP building. Therefore, CHEP recording can be useful for clinical examination of the nociceptive system.
-
Neuroscience letters · Jan 2002
Comparative StudySpecificity of putative partial agonist, 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid, for rat N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits.
The neuroprotective compound, 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (ACPC), has been reported to act on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors simultaneously as a glycine binding site agonist and a glutamate binding site competitive antagonist. The complex kinetics of NMDA current changes measured by a whole-cell voltage clamp in rat hippocampal neurons resulting from application and removal of 1 mM ACPC in the continual presence of 15 microM NMDA confirm this hypothesis. Two-electrode voltage clamp on Xenopus oocytes expressing NR1-1a and either NR2A, NR2B or NR2C subunits yielded biphasic ACPC dose response curves with 15 microM NMDA. NR1-1a/NR2B and NR1-1a/NR2C subunit combinations yielded overlapping dose response curves with a maximal efficacy of approximately 80%; the maximal efficacy of ACPC for the NR1-1a/NR2A subunit combination was significantly lower at approximately 60%.