• Spine · Sep 2008

    Existence of nerve growth factor receptors, tyrosine kinase a and p75 neurotrophin receptors in intervertebral discs and on dorsal root ganglion neurons innervating intervertebral discs in rats.

    • Ai Sugiura, Seiji Ohtori, Masaomi Yamashita, Gen Inoue, Kazuyo Yamauchi, Takana Koshi, Munetaka Suzuki, Masaki Norimoto, Sumihisa Orita, Yawara Eguchi, Yuzuru Takahashi, Tomoko Saito Watanabe, Nobuyasu Ochiai, Masashi Takaso, and Kazuhisa Takahashi.
    • Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
    • Spine. 2008 Sep 1; 33 (19): 2047-51.

    Study DesignWe evaluated 2 types of nerve growth factor (NGF) receptors on dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells and nerve fibers innervating rat lumbar intervertebral discs.ObjectiveTo examine the NGF receptors, tyrosine kinase A (TrkA) and p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) on DRG cells and nerve fibers innervating rat lumbar intervertebral discs using immunohistochemistry and a retrograde neurotracing method.Summary Of Background DataNerve innervation of intervertebral discs is thought to be a pathology of discogenic low back pain. NGF is also important for mediating inflammatory pain from intervertebral discs via the high affinity receptor, TrkA. Recent research has also revealed that the low affinity NGF receptor, p75NTR plays an important role in inflammatory pain. However, the presence of TrkA and p75NTR-immunoreactive (NTR-IR) DRG neurons innervating the rat L5/6 intervertebral disc, and p75NTR-IR nerve fibers in rat intervertebral discs, has not been explored.MethodsThe Fluoro-gold neurotracer was applied to rat L5/6 intervertebral discs to determine the DRG neurons innervating the discs (n = 20). Fourteen days after surgery, bilateral DRG from the L1-L6 levels were harvested, sectioned, and immunostained for TrkA and p75NTR. The percentages of TrkA and p75NTR-IR DRG neurons were counted, and p75NTR-IR nerve fibers in L5/6 discs evaluated.Resultsp75NTR-IR nerve fibers were found in superficial layers in the annulus fibrosus in L5/6 intervertebral discs. Fluoro-gold-labeled neurons innervating the L5/6 discs were distributed throughout DRG from the L1-L6 levels. The percentage of TrkA-immunoreactive (TrkA-IR) neurons was 75.1% +/- 3.9% (mean +/- SE) and that of p75NTR-IR neurons was 75.8% +/- 5.1%. These percentages were similar for each level.ConclusionRat L5/6 intervertebral discs were innervated by multisegmental levels of DRG. Most DRG neurons innervating the discs were positive for 2 types of NGF receptors.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…