Abstract

Spinal sensory transmission is under descending biphasic modulation, and descending facilitation is believed to contribute to chronic pain. Descending modulation from the brainstem rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) has been the most studied, whereas little is known about direct corticospinal modulation. Here, we found that stimulation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) potentiated spinal excitatory synaptic transmission and this modulation is independent of the RVM. Peripheral nerve injury enhanced the spinal synaptic transmission and occluded the ACC-spinal cord facilitation. Inhibition of ACC reduced the enhanced spinal synaptic transmission caused by nerve injury. Finally, using optogenetics, we showed that selective activation of ACC-spinal cord projecting neurons caused behavioral pain sensitization, while inhibiting the projection induced analgesic effects. Our results provide strong evidence that ACC stimulation facilitates spinal sensory excitatory transmission by a RVM-independent manner, and that such top-down facilitation may contribute to the process of chronic neuropathic pain.

Details

Title
Top-down descending facilitation of spinal sensory excitatory transmission from the anterior cingulate cortex
Author
Chen, Tao 1 ; Taniguchi, Wataru 2 ; Qi-Yu, Chen 3 ; Tozaki-Saitoh, Hidetoshi 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Song, Qian 3 ; Ren-Hao, Liu 3 ; Koga, Kohei 5 ; Matsuda, Tsuyoshi 4 ; Kaito-Sugimura, Yae 6 ; Wang, Jian 7 ; Zhi-Hua, Li 7 ; Ya-Cheng, Lu 7 ; Inoue, Kazuhide 8 ; Tsuda, Makoto 4 ; Yun-Qing, Li 7 ; Nakatsuka, Terumasa 6 ; Zhuo, Min 9 

 Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China; Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology and K.K. Leung Brain Research Centre, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China 
 Pain Research Center, Kansai University of Health Sciences, Kumatori, Osaka, Japan; Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan 
 Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China 
 Department of Life Innovation, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan 
 Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China; Department of Molecular and System Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan 
 Pain Research Center, Kansai University of Health Sciences, Kumatori, Osaka, Japan 
 Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology and K.K. Leung Brain Research Centre, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China 
 Department of Molecular and System Pharmacology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan 
 Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China; Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Center for the Study of Pain, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada 
Pages
1-17
Publication year
2018
Publication date
May 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2038677586
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.