- Title
- Pain
- Creator
- Graham, Brett; Callister, Robert
- Relation
- The Mouse Nervous System p. 589-606
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-369497-3.10023-8
- Publisher
- Academic Press
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- This chapter provides an overview of the current understanding of pain processing mechanisms with emphasis on the contributions made by the mouse. The application of molecular genetics to pain research has provided great insights into mechanisms underlying the complex sensory experience called “pain.” In broad terms, pain research using mice can be divided into three areas: work on naïve or normal animals aimed at increasing the understanding of pain processing mechanisms; work using mouse models of experimentally-induced pain where the goal is to uncover mechanisms that drive or amplify pain responses; and work where genetically modified mice are used to explore the role of various proteins or neuron types in pain processing mechanisms and circuits. Knockout and transgenic mice have been used to firmly establish the identity and understand the role of key proteins involved in transmitting information about noxious stimuli from the periphery into the spinal cord, and via the ascending pain pathway to the cerebral cortex. In the periphery, studies have identified a variety of sensors involved in detecting specific types of noxious stimuli, the second messenger pathways involved in sensitizing nociceptors in certain inflammatory and neuropathic pain models, and the identity and role of certain sodium channels that are largely confined to the transmission of information about tissue damage. In the CNS, particularly the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, genetically modified mice have allowed the study of specific genetically tagged neuron types, and helped in building better models of spinal cord pain circuits.
- Description
- 1st ed.
- Subject
- pain; research; cerebral cortex
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340728
- Identifier
- uon:28559
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780123694973
- Language
- eng
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