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Minocycline attenuates mechanical allodynia and expression of spinal NMDA receptor 1 subunit in rat neuropathic pain model

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Abstract

Recent studies have indicated that minocycline, a microglia inhibitor, could potentially be used as an antinociceptive agent in pain management, although the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, we investigated the extent to which minocycline could influence pain behavior in association with the expression of the N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor 1 (NMDAR1) in a rat L5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL) model. We observed that the intrathecal injection of minocycline significantly attenuated mechanical allodynia in a rat SNL model from day 1 postinjection and persisted for at least 18 days. We also observed that the expression of NMDAR1 was increased in the spinal dorsal horn at 8 days after SNL, which could be partly inhibited through the intrathecal injection of minocycline. These findings suggest that the attenuation of allodynia in the SNL model following minocycline administration might be associated with the inhibited expression of NMDAR1 and, therefore, might play an important role in the minocycline-mediated antinociception.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported through a grant from the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality. We would like to thank Chuanyao Tong for his comments on the manuscript. We also thank Gengcheng Wu and Yanqing Wang for their technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pain Management Center, Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 600 Yi Shan Road, Shanghai, 200233, People’s Republic of China

    Shaofeng Pu, Yongming Xu, Dongping Du, Meirong Yang, Xin Zhang, Junzhen Wu & Wei Jiang

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  1. Shaofeng Pu
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  2. Yongming Xu
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  3. Dongping Du
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  4. Meirong Yang
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  5. Xin Zhang
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  7. Wei Jiang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dongping Du.

Additional information

Shaofeng Pu and Yongming Xu contributed equally to this work.

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Pu, S., Xu, Y., Du, D. et al. Minocycline attenuates mechanical allodynia and expression of spinal NMDA receptor 1 subunit in rat neuropathic pain model. J Physiol Biochem 69, 349–357 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13105-012-0217-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13105-012-0217-4

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