Advertisement for orthosearch.org.uk
Results 1 - 1 of 1
Results per page:
Bone & Joint Research
Vol. 1, Issue 9 | Pages 198 - 204
1 Sep 2012
Iwase T Takebayashi T Tanimoto K Terashima Y Miyakawa T Kobayashi T Tohse N Yamashita T

Objectives

In order to elucidate the influence of sympathetic nerves on lumbar radiculopathy, we investigated whether sympathectomy attenuated pain behaviour and altered the electrical properties of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in a rat model of lumbar root constriction.

Methods

Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three experimental groups. In the root constriction group, the left L5 spinal nerve root was ligated proximal to the DRG as a lumbar radiculopathy model. In the root constriction + sympathectomy group, sympathectomy was performed after the root constriction procedure. In the control group, no procedures were performed. In order to evaluate the pain relief effect of sympathectomy, behavioural analysis using mechanical and thermal stimulation was performed. In order to evaluate the excitability of the DRG neurons, we recorded action potentials of the isolated single DRG neuron by the whole-cell patch-clamp method.