The general goal of our lab is to understand the peripheral mechanisms of pain, and my project specifically investigates pain associated with trigeminal nerve injury. The preparation that I'm showing today allows us to characterize changes in sensory coating and identify afferent subpopulations contributing to neuropathic pain. So we have shown that there are differences in between the trigeminal and somatic afferents in response to nerve injury.
NaV1.1 specifically is preferentially upregulated in the trigeminal nerve, suggesting that selective blockers for NaV1.1 can be used to identify different afferent subpopulations that contribute to neuropathic pain. So transgenic mice are used most extensively at the moment in combination with a variety of imaging and omic based strategies. Translating data generated in mice to other species, if not humans.
Mice are really small, they're difficult to train, and there's a growing list of differences between mice, rats, and humans. So using rats may help address several of these challenges. Pain mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets differ in craniofacial structures, as in those above the neck, and other somatic and visceral structures, i.e.
those below the neck. Results with this preparation suggest that there's a component of neuropathic pain, which is previously thought to reflect changes in the central nervous system, but may actually also reflect changes in the peripheral nervous system.
