The Red Nucleus Interleukin-6 Participates in the Maintenance of Neuropathic Pain Induced by Spared Nerve Injury.

The Red Nucleus Interleukin-6 Participates in the Maintenance of Neuropathic Pain Induced by Spared Nerve Injury. Neurochem Res. 2016 Aug 3; Authors: Ding CP, Xue YS, Yu J, Guo YJ, Zeng XY, Wang JY Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that the red nucleus (RN) is involved in the regulation of neuropathic pain and plays both facilitated and inhibitory roles through different cytokines. Here, we aim to investigate the expression changes and roles of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pleiotropic cytokine, as well as its receptor (IL-6R) in the RN of rats with neuropathic pain induced by spared nerve injury (SNI). Immunohistochemistry indicated that IL-6 and IL-6R were weakly expressed in the RN of normal rats, and were mainly co-localized with neurons and oligodendrocytes. Following SNI, the expression levels of IL-6 and IL-6R in the RN did not show obvious changes at 1 week and 2 weeks postinjury. However, both of them were significantly increased in the RN contralateral (but not ipsilateral) to the nerve ligation side at 3 weeks postinjury, and co-localized not only with neurons and oligodendrocytes, but also with numerous astrocytes. Injection of different doses of anti-IL-6 antibody (100, 250, 500 ng) into the RN contralateral to the nerve ligation side at 3 weeks postinjury dose-dependently increased the paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) of rats and alleviated SNI-induced mechanical allodynia. Conversely, injection of different dose...
Source: Neurochemical Research - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Neurochem Res Source Type: research