Activated Microglia Contribute to the Maintenance of Chronic Pain after Spinal Cord Injury

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) results not only in motor impairment but also in chronic central pain, which can be refractory to conventional treatment approaches. It has been shown recently that in models of peripheral nerve injury, spinal cord microglia can become activated and contribute to development of pain. Considering their role in pain after peripheral injury, and because microglia are known to become activated after SCI, we tested the hypothesis that activated microglia contribute to chronic pain after SCI. In this study, adult male Sprague Dawley rats underwent T9 spinal cord contusion injury. Four weeks after injury, when lumbar dorsal horn multireceptive neurons became hyperresponsive and when…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• NM
  National Multiple Sclerosis Society
• P
  Pfizer
• PV
  Paralyzed Veterans of America
• MS
  Multiple Sclerosis Society
• NI
  National Institutes of Health