VEGFR2 promotes central endothelial activation and the spread of pain in inflammatory arthritis

Publication date: Available online 14 March 2018Source: Brain, Behavior, and ImmunityAuthor(s): Nicholas Beazley-Long, Catherine Elizabeth Moss, William Robert Ashby, Samuel Marcus Bestall, Fatimah Almahasneh, Alexandra Margaret Durrant, Andrew Vaughan Benest, Zoe Blackley, Kurt Ballmer-Hofer, Masanori Hirashima, Richard Phillip Hulse, David Owen Bates, Lucy Frances DonaldsonAbstractChronic pain can develop in response to conditions such as inflammatory arthritis. The central mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of chronic pain in humans are not well elucidated although there is evidence for a role of microglia and astrocytes. However in pre-clinical models of pain, including models of inflammatory arthritis, there is a wealth of evidence indicating roles for pathological glial reactivity within the CNS. In the spinal dorsal horn of rats with painful inflammatory arthritis we found both a significant increase in CD11b+ microglia-like cells and GFAP+ astrocytes associated with blood vessels, and the number of activated blood vessels expressing the adhesion molecule ICAM-1, indicating potential glio-vascular activation. Using pharmacological interventions targeting VEGFR2 in arthritic rats, to inhibit endothelial cell activation, the number of dorsal horn ICAM-1+ blood vessels, CD11b+ microglia and the development of secondary mechanical allodynia, an indicator of central sensitization, were all prevented. Targeting endothelial VEGFR2 by inducible Tie2-specific...
Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Category: Neurology Source Type: research