Regional Hyperexcitability and Chronic Neuropathic Pain Following Spinal Cord Injury.

Regional Hyperexcitability and Chronic Neuropathic Pain Following Spinal Cord Injury. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2020 Jan 18;: Authors: Kang J, Cho SS, Kim HY, Lee BH, Cho HJ, Gwak YS Abstract Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes maladaptive changes to nociceptive synaptic circuits within the injured spinal cord. Changes also occur at remote regions including the brain stem, limbic system, cortex, and dorsal root ganglia. These maladaptive nociceptive synaptic circuits frequently cause neuronal hyperexcitability in the entire nervous system and enhance nociceptive transmission, resulting in chronic central neuropathic pain following SCI. The underlying mechanism of chronic neuropathic pain depends on the neuroanatomical structures and electrochemical communication between pre- and postsynaptic neuronal membranes, and propagation of synaptic transmission in the ascending pain pathways. In the nervous system, neurons are the only cell type that transmits nociceptive signals from peripheral receptors to supraspinal systems due to their neuroanatomical and electrophysiological properties. However, the entire range of nociceptive signaling is not mediated by any single neuron. Current literature describes regional studies of electrophysiological or neurochemical mechanisms for enhanced nociceptive transmission post-SCI, but few studies report the electrophysiological, neurochemical, and neuroanatomical changes across the entire nervous system followi...
Source: Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology - Category: Cytology Authors: Tags: Cell Mol Neurobiol Source Type: research