cDNA Mircoarray Anaylsis of the Differential Gene Expression in the Neuropathic Pain and Electroacupuncture Treatment Models

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Partial nerve injury is the main cause of neuropathic pain disorders in humans. Acupuncture has long been used to relieve pain. It is known to relieve pain by controlling the activities of the autonomic nervous system. Although the mechanism of neuropathic pain and analgesic effects of elertroacupuncture(EA) have been studied in a rat model system, its detailed mechanism at the molecular level remains unclear. To identify genes that might serve as either markers or explain these distinct biological functions. a 'cDNA microarray analysis was, used to compare the expression of 8,400 genes among three sample groups. essenger RNAs tHat were pooled from the spinal nerves of 7 normal, 7 neurepathic pain, and 7 EA treatment rat models were compared. Sixty-eight genes were differentially expressed more than 2-fold in the neuropathic rat model when compared to the normal, and restored to the normal enpression level after the EA treatment. These genes are involved in a number of biological precesses, including the signal transduction, gene expression, and nociceptive pathways. Confirmation of the differential gene expression was performed by a dotblot analysis. Dot-blotting results showed that the opioid rereptor sigma was among those genes. This indicates that opioid-signaling events are involved in neuropathic pain and the analgesic effects of EA. The potential application of these data include the identification and chararterization of signaling pathways that are involed in the EA treatment, studies on the role of the opioid receptor in neuropathic pain, and further etploration on the role of selected identified genes in animal models.