Neonatal microglia come of age for inflammatory pain.

摘要

In this issue, you will find a paper by Vega-Avelaira et al. entitled 'Inflammation-induced hyperalgesia and spinal microglia reactivity in neonatal rat'. The central question addressed in this study is whether there is a relationship between spinal microglial activation and the increased pain sensitivity associated with cutaneous inflammation in neonatal rodents. Unlike peripheral inflammation, it well established that neuropathic pain is never observed in neonates. Consistent with this is the observation that in animal models of peripheral neuropathy, hypersensitivity to mechanical stimuli is absent if the injury is generated before the fourth post-natal week (Howard et al., 2005; Rule and Eisenach, 2006). A likely factor in the disparity between the behavioural outcomes to nerve injury in neonates and adults is the response of microglia to injury.