Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and... more
Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and ...
Chronic pain is a significant burden and much is attributed to back muscles. Back muscles and their associated fasciae make important and distinct contributions to back pain. Peptidergic nociceptors innervating these structures contribute... more
Chronic pain is a significant burden and much is attributed to back muscles. Back muscles and their associated fasciae make important and distinct contributions to back pain. Peptidergic nociceptors innervating these structures contribute to central transmission and pain modulation by peripheral and central actions. Plastic changes that augment and prolong pain are exhibited by neurons containing calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) following muscle injury. Subpopulations of neurons containing this peptide have been identified in dorsal root ganglia but the distribution of their fibers in skeletal muscles and associated fasciae has not been fully documented. This study used multiple-labeling immunofluorescence and retrograde axonal tracing to identify dorsal root ganglion cells associated with muscle, and to characterize the distribution and density of their nerve fibers in mouse gastrocnemius and back muscles and in the thoracolumbar fascia. Most nerve fibers in these tissues contained CGRP and two major subpopulations of neurons were found: those containing CGRP and substance P (SP) and those containing CGRP but not SP. Innervation density was three times higher in the thoracolumbar fascia than in muscles of the back. These studies show mouse back and leg muscles are predominantly innervated by neurons containing CGRP, an important modulator of pain signal transmission. There are two distinct populations of neurons containing this peptide and their fibers were three times more densely distributed in the thoracolumbar fascia than back muscles.
The vagina is innervated by a complex arrangement of sensory, sympathetic, and parasympathetic nerve fibers that contain classical transmitters plus an array of neuropeptides and enzymes known to regulate diverse processes including blood... more
The vagina is innervated by a complex arrangement of sensory, sympathetic, and parasympathetic nerve fibers that contain classical transmitters plus an array of neuropeptides and enzymes known to regulate diverse processes including blood flow and nociception. The neurochemical characteristics and distributions of peptide-containing nerves in the mouse vagina are unknown. This study used multiple labeling immunohistochemistry, confocal maging and analysis to investigate the presence and colocalization of the peptides vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), calcitonin-gene related peptide (CGRP), substance P (SP), neuropeptide tyrosine (NPY), and the nitric oxide synthesizing enzyme neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in nerve fibers of the murine vaginal wall. We compared cervical and vulvar areas of the vagina in young nullipara and older multipara C57Bl/6 mice, and identified differences including that small ganglia were restricted to cervical segments, epithelial fibers were m...
Peptidergic nerve fibers provide important contributions to urethral function. Urethral innervation of female mice is not well documented. To determine the distribution and projection sites of nerve fibers immunoreactive for vasoactive... more
Peptidergic nerve fibers provide important contributions to urethral function. Urethral innervation of female mice is not well documented. To determine the distribution and projection sites of nerve fibers immunoreactive for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), substance P (SP), and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the urethra of wild-type control mice and compare innervation characteristics between the proximal and distal urethra of young nullipara and older multipara mice. Furthermore, to identify the location and neurochemical coding of the spinal afferent nerve endings in the urethra, whose sensory neurons reside in lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Multiple labeling immunohistochemistry of urethral sections of nulliparous (6-8 weeks old), and multiparous (9-12 months old) mice, and anterograde axonal tracing from L5-S2 (DRG) in vivo. Abundant VIP-, CGRP-, SP-, and NPY-immunoreactive nerve fibers were identified in the adventitia, muscularis, ...
Vulvodynia is a prevalent chronic pain disorder associated with high medical costs and often ineffective treatments. The major pathological feature is proliferation of vaginal nerve fibers. This study aimed to develop a highly... more
Vulvodynia is a prevalent chronic pain disorder associated with high medical costs and often ineffective treatments. The major pathological feature is proliferation of vaginal nerve fibers. This study aimed to develop a highly reproducible animal model to study neuroproliferation in the vagina and aid the identification of appropriately targeted treatments for conditions such as vulvodynia. Mild chronic inflammation was induced using microinjection of complete Freund's adjuvant in the distal vagina of C57Bl/6 mice. Control mice received saline. Inflammation and innervation density were assessed at 7 and 28 days after a single administration or 14 days following repeated administration of complete Freund's adjuvant or saline. Histochemistry and blinded-analysis of images were used to assess vaginal morphology (H & E) and abundance of macrophages (CD68-labeling), mast cells (toluidine blue staining, mast cell tryptase-immunoreactivity), blood vessels (αSMA-immunoreactivity) an...
Purpose: This pilot study compared traditional (paper-based) and electronic (computerized) clinical physiotherapy records. The content of the records and the software’s user acceptability were considered. Methods: A neuro-musculoskeletal... more
Purpose: This pilot study compared traditional (paper-based) and electronic (computerized) clinical physiotherapy records. The content of the records and the software’s user acceptability were considered. Methods: A neuro-musculoskeletal patient scenario involving two encounters (initial and follow-up) was scripted and role-played to each of three experienced physiotherapists (A, B and C). Participants assessed the patient and made traditional clinical records. After basic training in an electronic record system, they repeated the assessments and made electronic records via a laptop computer. Three experienced physiotherapists (A, D and E) each used their usual method to write a clinical report and an electronic record to write a report with the aid of the software’s report tool. The two participants who wrote reports but did not assess the patient (D and E) received a brief software demonstration just prior to writing the electronic record report. The electronic and traditional cli...
Purpose: This pilot study compared traditional (paper-based) and electronic (computerized) clinical physiotherapy records. The content of the records and the software’s user acceptability were considered. Methods: A neuro-musculoskeletal... more
Purpose: This pilot study compared traditional (paper-based) and electronic (computerized) clinical physiotherapy records. The content of the records and the software’s user acceptability were considered. Methods: A neuro-musculoskeletal patient scenario involving two encounters (initial and follow-up) was scripted and role-played to each of three experienced physiotherapists (A, B and C). Participants assessed the patient and made traditional clinical records. After basic training in an electronic record system, they repeated the assessments and made electronic records via a laptop computer. Three experienced physiotherapists (A, D and E) each used their usual method to write a clinical report and an electronic record to write a report with the aid of the software’s report tool. The two participants who wrote reports but did not assess the patient (D and E) received a brief software demonstration just prior to writing the electronic record report. The electronic and traditional cli...
IntroductionImproved understanding of vestibulodynia pathophysiology is required to develop appropriately targeted treatments. Established features include vulvovaginal hyperinnervation, increased nociceptive signalling and... more
IntroductionImproved understanding of vestibulodynia pathophysiology is required to develop appropriately targeted treatments. Established features include vulvovaginal hyperinnervation, increased nociceptive signalling and hypersensitivity. Emerging evidence indicates macrophage-neuron signalling contributes to chronic pain pathophysiology. Macrophages are broadly classified as M1 or M2, demonstrating pro-nociceptive or anti-nociceptive effects respectively. This study investigates the impact of clodronate liposomes, a macrophage depleting agent, on nociceptive signalling in a mouse model of vestibulodynia.MethodsMicroinjection of complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) at the vaginal introitus induced mild chronic inflammation in C57Bl/6J mice. A subgroup was treated with the macrophage depleting agent clodronate. Control mice received saline. After 7 days, immunolabelling for PGP9.5, F4/80+CD11c+ and F4/80+CD206+ was used to compare innervation density and presence of M1 and M2 macropha...
