Effect of aging on the substance P receptor, NK-1, in the spinal cord of rats with peripheral nerve injury.

Effect of aging on the substance P receptor, NK-1, in the spinal cord of rats with peripheral nerve injury.

Cruce W L; Lovell J A; Crisp T; Stuesse S L

Somatosensory & Motor Research

2001

2001

Substance P (SP) levels in the spinal cords of very old rats are less than the levels in younger rats (Bergman et al., 1996). After injury to a peripheral nerve in young rats, immunoreactivity (ir) to the SP receptor, NK-1 (neurokinin-1), increases in the spinal cord ipsilateral to the injury and the increases are correlated with the development of thermal hyperalgesia (Goff et al., 1998). Thus we postulated that aged rats might display an increased sensitivity to thermal stimulation before peripheral nerve injury and that they might respond differently to injury than do younger rats. To test this hypothesis, we used the Bennett and Xie model (1988) of chronic constriction injury (CCI) to the sciatic nerve to induce a neuropathic pain condition. We investigated the effect of age on changes in NK-1 ir in superficial layers of the dorsal horn and on numbers of NK ir cells in deeper laminae at the L4-L5 levels of the spinal cord after CCI.

*Peripheral Nerve Injuries; Aging/*physiology; Animals; Computer-Assisted; Hot Temperature; Image Processing; Immunohistochemistry; Inbred BN; Inbred F344; Neurokinin-1/*metabolism; Rats; Receptors; Spinal Cord/*metabolism; Thermosensing/physiology; Touch/physiology

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