April 12, 2019　　Friday Lunch Seminar
12:15 〜 13:00

CiNet　1F　Conference Room

“Molecular mechanism of chronic pain: From immunology to brain network remodeling”

Yutaro Kumagai

Senior Researcher
Stem Cell Biotechnology Research Group
Department of Life Science and Biotechnology
Biotechnology Research Institute for Drug Discovery
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

Host PI: Aya Nakae

Abstract:

Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a cause of pain suffering even after recovery from surgical insult with incidence rate of 5-50 %. Prior studies suggest that excessive activation of peripheral neurons as well as remodeling of neural circuit by microglia and/or astrocytes are cause of CPSP. However, its molecular mechanism is still elusive. To elucidate the mechanism of CPSP, we devised our original CPSP animal model and investigated the mice with deficiency in various genes involved in inflammatory response and migration of immune cells. We have found that mice deficient in genes involved in inflammatory response were resistant to CPSP. These results indicate that strong inflammation and migration of monocytes into the brain caused by surgical insult are essential molecular basis for CPSP. Moreover, to clarify molecular mechanism under inflammatory remodeling of the brain, we performed transcriptome analysis of whole brain of CPSP mice, and have found that expression levels of genes specific for myelinated oligodendrocytes was reduced. This indicates reduction of myelinated oligodendrocytes in the brain after onset of CPSP which resembles demyelination.

About CiNet’s Friday Lunch Seminars:
The Friday Lunch Seminar is CiNet’s main regular meeting series, held every week at 12:15 in the beautiful main lecture theatre on the ground floor at CiNet. The talks are typically 40mins long and orientated towards an inter-disciplinary audience. They are informal, social, and most people bring their own lunch to eat during the talk. They are open to anyone who is feeling curious and wants to come, regardless of where you work.