Engaging pain fibers after a spinal cord injury fosters hemorrhage and expands the area of secondary injury.

ABSTRACT: In humans, spinal cord injury (SCI) is often accompanied by additional tissue damage (polytrauma) that can engage pain (nociceptive) fibers. Prior work has shown that this nociceptive input can expand the area of tissue damage (secondary injury), undermine behavioral recovery, and enhance the development of chronic pain. Here, it is shown that nociceptive input given a day after a lower thoracic contusion injury in rats enhances the infiltration of red blood cells at the site of injury, producing an area of hemorrhage that expands secondary injury. Peripheral nociceptive fibers were engaged 24 h after injury by means of electrical stimulation (shock) applied at an intensity that engages unmyelinated pain (C) fibers or through the application of the irritant capsaicin. Convergent western im

SUBMITTER: Turtle JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6530785 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature