2006 Volume 102 Issue 1 Pages 64-71
Peripheral nerve injury leads to the establishment of a novel synaptic connection between afferent Aβ-fiber and lamina II neurons in spinal dorsal horn, which is hypothesized to underlie mechanical allodynia. However, how the novel synapses transmit nociceptive information is poorly understood. In the present study, the role of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) in Aβ-fiber-evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) recorded in lamina II neurons in transverse spinal cord slices of rats was investigated using the whole-cell patch-clamp recording technique. In the slices from sciatic nerve transection (SNT) rats, genistein (50 μM), a broad-spectrum PTKs inhibitor, or PP2 (20 μM), a selective Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor, significantly reduced the amplitude of Aβ-fiber EPSCs. In sham-operated rats, however, Aβ-fiber EPSCs were insensitive to genistein and PP2. The N-methyl-