骨粗鬆性疼痛モデルにおける骨の痛みの伝達経路

抄録

Pain derived from musculoskeletal disorders play a major role in the health profile of the general population. Especially osteoporotic state itself can generate pain, called osteoporotic pain. One mechanism for that pain includes increased expression of an inflammatory pain–related biomarker, calcitonin gene–related peptide (CGRP), in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) innervating osteo porotic vertebrae in ovariectomized (OVX) rats, that induces susceptibility to pain. Also the involve ment of neuropathic pain was revealed using a mechan ically compressed coccygeal vertebrae model in OVX rats to evaluate the effect of longitudinal gravity, which contains a factor of mechanical injury induced by the compression axial stress itself. These findings demonstrate that the osteoporotic state itself can generate pain under conditions susceptible to compression stress of axial loading in addition to the neural alteration in sensory innervation. Osteoporosis treatment predominantly aims to increase the bone mineral density (BMD)of patients in order to prevent possible fragile fractures, that sometimes leads to a critical condition or result in a poor quality of life. In addition to the enhancement in BMD, some basic researches have shown the evidences of pharmacological or non–pharmacological treatment strategies to relieve the osteoporotic pain. Physicians should always keep these matters in mind in treating osteoporotic pain patients.