(217) Microglia-Like Cells Derived from Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells from Patients with Sickle Cell Disease as a Model System to Investigate Chronic Pain

Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) experience severe acute pain episodes, and often progress to chronic pain. In patients with chronic pain, microglia are readily activated, stimulating neurons to send a pain signal; studying microglia may provide important insights into development of chronic pain. Human microglia are difficult to obtain; we proposed to culture microglia-like cells (MLC) from peripheral blood from three individuals from each of the following groups: patients with SCD and chronic pain (SCD CP+, defined as pain for more than 50% of days for at least 3 months), without chronic pain (SCD CP-), and blood donors (WT).
Source: The Journal of Pain - Category: Materials Science Authors: Source Type: research