RESEARCH ARTICLE


Ablation and Regeneration of Peripheral and Central TRPV1 Expressing Nerve Terminals and the Consequence of Nociception



Shuang-Quan Yu1, 2, *, Louis S. Premkumar1, *
1 Department of Pharmacology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL 62702, USA
2 Department of Clinical Medicine, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI 48824, USA


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
6
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 727
Abstract HTML Views: 546
PDF Downloads: 808
Total Views/Downloads: 2081
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 400
Abstract HTML Views: 322
PDF Downloads: 568
Total Views/Downloads: 1290



Creative Commons License
© 2014 Yu and Premkumar.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Clinical Medicine, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI 48824, USA; Tel: 217-545-2179; Fax: 217-545-0145; E-mails: lpremkumar@siumed.edu and sqyu@msu.edu


Abstract

Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) expressed in peripheral terminals is responsible for transducing thermal and chemical nociception. Role of TRPV1 expressed in the central terminals is not clear, however, its activation modulates synaptic transmission and contributes to central sensitization. In this study, we have determined the role of TRPV1 expressed in the peripheral and central terminals using resiniferatoxin (RTX), a potent TRPV1 agonist. A single intraplantar injection of RTX, within two days induced loss of capsaicin-induced nocifensive behavior and enhanced response latency to hot plate, which recovered over a period of two months. RTX treatment resulted in the ablation of peripheral TRPV1 expressing fibers in paw skin, which regenerated over the same time period. On the other hand, a single dose of intrathecal administration of RTX, within two days caused thermal hypoalgesia. RTX treatment ablated TRPV1 expressing central sensory nerve terminals. Intriguingly, in contrast to peripheral nerve terminal regeneration that occurred within two months, the central TRPV1 expressing nerve terminals did not regenerate even after five months. The present study demonstrates that TRPV1 in the peripheral and central terminals play a role in nociception and the peripheral terminals have the ability to regenerate, whereas the central terminals do not regenerate even after five months.

Keywords: Ablation, Pain Control, Regeneration, Resiniferatoxin, TRPV1.