Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 mediates pain in mice with severe sickle cell disease.

ABSTRACT: Pain is the leading cause of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and daily suffering in individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD). The pathologic mechanisms leading to the perception of pain during acute RBC sickling episodes and development of chronic pain remain poorly understood and ineffectively treated. We provide the first study that explores nociceptor sensitization mechanisms that contribute to pain behavior in mice with severe SCD. Sickle mice exhibit robust behavioral hypersensitivity to mechanical, cold, and heat stimuli. Mechanical hypersensitivity is further exacerbated when hypoxia is used to induce acute sickling. Behavioral mechanical hypersensitivity is mediated in part by enhanced excitability to mechanical stimuli at both primary afferent peripheral terminal

SUBMITTER: Hillery CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3179403 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature