Sympathetic sprouting and changes in nociceptive sensory innervation in the glabrous skin of the rat hind paw following partial peripheral nerve injury

摘要

Previous studies have suggested that sympathetic sprouting in the periphery may contribute to the development and persistence of sympathetically-maintained pain in animal models of neuropathic pain. The purpose of this thesis was to examine morphological changes in the cutaneous innervation in rats after chronic constriction injury (CCI) to the sciatic nerve. More specifically, this study addresses the question of whether sympathetic fibres sprout de novo into the upper dermis of the rat hindpaw skin after CCI of the sciatic nerve. We also determined changes in peptidergic sensory innervation following CCI.