Activated Satellite Glial Cells in the Trigeminal Ganglion after Unilateral Infraorbital Nerve Injury
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| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Peripheral nerve injury induces an activation of the satellite glial cells (SGCs) in the sensory ganglia. Activated SGCs are believed to contribute to increased excitation of the primary sensory neurons and neuropathic pain induction. The goal of our work was to investigate bilateral activation of SGCs in the trigeminal ganglion (TG) following unilateral infraorbital nerve ligation (IONL). Wistar rats (males, 270g) were operated on unilateral IONL (n=12) and allowed to survive for 3 (n=6) and 7 (n=6) days. Naive (n=4) and sham-operated rats (n=4) were used as control. Immunofluorescence staining of TG sections for GFAP and ATF3 were used for detection of activated SGCs and injured neurons, respectively. The quantitative evaluation of GFAP staining was performed using image analysis system Lucia. We found that activation of SGCs was significantly increased in bilateral TG after unilateral IONL. Although injured neurons of infraorbital nerve lie in the maxillary region, a moderate activation of SGCs was also detected in the mandibular region of TG. A low activation of SGCs was found in ipsilateral TG removed from sham-operated rats. Our results revealed that unilateral IONL affects the activation of SGCs not only around injured (ATF3+) but also ATF3- neurons of TG. Satellite glial cells are thought to play a role in neuronal activation in response to peripheral nerve injury leading to neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain. |
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