Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Author: Yanaysis Stable García Yanaysis | Email: ystable1994@gmail.com
Yanaysis Stable García1°, Cristian Acosta1°
1° Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza. Conicet
Post-surgical pain is a common condition that individuals experience after surgery, accidents, traumas or cosmetic procedures. This pain is associated with deregulation of nociceptor activity and hyperinnervation of the injured regions. Limonene is a monoterpene that could modulate the activity of sensory neurons thus potentially having analgesic properties. We aim to determine the effect of limonene on nociceptive fibers in a rodent post-surgical pain model. Our focus was to evaluate the ability of limonene to affect neuritogenesis in subpopulations of rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and its underlying mechanisms of action. Four-month-old C57BL/6 mice of both sexes were treated with a limonene-based cream or placebo after induction of a plantar skin lesion. In vivo, we performed behavioral tests of postsurgical pain for 15 days and quantitative immunohistochemistry. In vitro we treated DRG neurons with limonene, NGF or both and examined the results using Western Blot and immunocytochemistry. Behavioral tests showed that male mice treated with limonene after skin injury experienced a significant recovery of mechanical allodynia compared to the placebo group from day 6 onwards. This effect was not evident in females, where treatment with limonene resulted in significantly greater length of IB4+ sensory fibers compared to the placebo group. Additionally, TrkA expression was modulated in vitro by limonene combined with NGF.