Most reactions leading to neuropathic pain at dorsal root ganglion of rats with spinal nerve ligation have occurred in the early phase

Abstract

In order to study the mechanism of early and late neuropathic pain, Ribonucleic acid sequencing (RNA-seq) technique was used to analyze the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) transcriptome of rat induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL). It was found that most of the reactions leading to neuropathic pain at dorsal root ganglion, such as pro-inflammatory response and immunity, occurred in the early phase.378 genes are up-regulated and 42 genes are down-regulated in the early phase, while in the late phase, there are 27 up-regulated genes and 23 down-regulated genes. Four new pain related genes are found: Cd8a, Bub1b, Ccna2 and Cdk1. From the analysis of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways and Gene Ontology (GO) functions enriched by differentially expressed genes (DEGs), dorsal root ganglion should carry out immunities, pro-inflammations and related compensatory regulation in response to peripheral nerve injury in the early phase. The late phase is characterized by maintaining long-term or chronic inflammation.