Tamara King publishes in ‘Pain’ journal

Tamara King, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical sciences, served as collaborator on an article titled “Artemin Induced Functional Recovery and Reinnervation after Partial Nerve Injury,” which was published in the November 2013 issue of Pain.

The article investigates the effect of systemic administration of the glial-derived neurotrophic factor, Artemin, on functional recovery of peripheral nerves following injury.  It has previously been shown that systemic Artemin can promote regeneration of dorsal root nerve fibers back into the spinal cord, but whether regeneration occurs in the periphery had not been demonstrated.

Nerve injury induced by transection, ligation, or crush, produces thermal and tactile hypersensitivity. Treatment with Artemin transiently reversed these measures of nerve-injury induced pain, with the hypersensitivity returning within 1 week of termination of Artemin treatment.

However, in animals that underwent a nerve crush, but not a full nerve transection or ligation, thermal and tactile sensory thresholds returned to normal levels by six weeks.  This finding suggests that in injury models in which regeneration is possible (crush versus transection or ligation), Artemin can promote regeneration and that this regeneration restores sensation to normal status, reversing the injury-associated pain.

This work unravels a potential therapy to promote peripheral nerve regeneration following injury and it also shows that the ability to promote regeneration may aid in treating injury-associated pain.

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