The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
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Phospholipase C (PLC) beta4, one of the four isoforms of PLCbetas, is the sole isoform expressed in the mouse ventral posterolateral thalamic nucleus (VPL), a key station in pain processing. The mouse thalamus also has been shown to express a high level of metabotropic glutamate receptor type 1 (mGluR1), which stimulates PLCbetas through activation of Galphaq/11 protein. It is therefore expected that the thalamic mGluR1-PLCbeta4 cascade may play a functional role in nociceptive transmission. ⋯ In contrast, PLCbeta4 knock-out mice did not show such enhancement, indicating that mGluR1 is connected to PLCbeta4 in the VPL. Finally, in parallel with the behavioral results, we showed in an electrophysiological study that the time course of firing discharges in VPL corresponds well to that of pain behavior in the formalin test in both wild-type and PLCbeta4 knock-out mice. These findings indicate that the thalamic mGluR1-PLCbeta4 cascade is indispensable for the formalin-induced inflammatory pain by regulating the response of VPL neurons.