Molecular neurobiology
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Molecular neurobiology · Feb 2015
IL-10 cytokine released from M2 macrophages is crucial for analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of acupuncture in a model of inflammatory muscle pain.
Muscle pain is a common medical problem that is difficult to treat. One nonpharmacological treatment used is acupuncture, a procedure in which fine needles are inserted into body points with the intent of relieving pain and other symptoms. Here we investigated the effects of manual acupuncture (MA) on modulating macrophage phenotype and interleukin-10 (IL-10) concentrations in animals with muscle inflammation. ⋯ SP6 MA increased muscle IL-10 levels and was ineffective in reducing pain behaviors and edema in IL-10 knockout (IL-10(-/-)) mice. Repeated daily treatments with SP6 MA induced a phenotypic switch of muscle macrophages with reduced M1 macrophages (pro-inflammatory cells) and an increase of M2 macrophages (anti-inflammatory cells and important IL-10 source). These findings provide new evidence that MA produces a phenotypic switch in macrophages and increases IL-10 concentrations in muscle to reduce pain and inflammation.
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Molecular neurobiology · Feb 2015
Pathway analysis of two amyotrophic lateral sclerosis GWAS highlights shared genetic signals with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the third most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). In order to unravel more genetic etiology of ALS, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted. However, the newly identified ALS susceptibility loci exert only very small risk effects and cannot fully explain the underlying ALS genetic risk. ⋯ We compared the findings from ALS GWAS with those of previous pathway analyses of AD and PD GWAS. The results further supported the involvement of AD and PD risk pathways in ALS. We believe that our results may advance the understanding of ALS mechanisms and will be very useful for future genetic studies.