NRR：首次定位褪黑素在三叉神经尾侧脊束核的分布

大部分研究者认为褪黑素与调节痛觉有关，在痛觉调控中起“镇痛”作用。中国中山大学黄芳博士及其同事发表的一项研究，首次定位了褪黑素受体1在三叉神经尾侧脊束核的分布，并证明颜面部疼痛刺激早期，在颌面痛觉传导通路低级中枢的神经元褪黑素相关受体明显减少，显示此时褪黑素调控痛觉的作用减弱。有关褪黑素究竟是起镇痛还是促痛作用的机制，尚有待进一步深入揭示。【原文下载】

Abstract:

Very little is known about the role of melatonin in the trigeminal system, including the function of melatonin receptor 1. In the present study, adult rats were injected with formaldehyde into the right vibrissae pad to establish a model of orofacial inflammatory pain. The distribution of melatonin re-ceptor 1 and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase in the caudal spinal trigem-inal nucleus and trigeminal ganglion was determined with immunohistochemistry and histochemistry. The results show that there are significant differences in melatonin receptor 1 expression and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate diaphorase expression in the trigeminal ganglia and caudal spinal nucleus during the early stage of orofacial inflammatory pain. Our findings suggest that when melatonin receptor 1 expression in the caudal spinal nucleus is significantly reduced, melatonin’s regulatory effect on pain is attenuated.

原文出处:

Fang Huang, Hongwen He, Wenguo Fan, Yongliang Liu, Hongyu Zhou, Bin Cheng.Orofacial inflammatory pain affects the expression of MT1 and NADPH-d in rat caudal spinal trigeminal nucleus and trigeminal ganglion***Neural Regen Res. 2013;8(32):2991-3002.【原文下载】