TY - JOUR
T1 - Cutaneous innervation density in the allodynic form of postherpetic neuralgia
AU - Rowbotham, Michael C.
AU - Yosipovitch, Gil
AU - Connolly, M. Kari
AU - Finlay, Deborah
AU - Forde, Grace
AU - Fields, Howard L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by a gift from the Bromwell Charitable Trust, NINDS Grant NS21445, and NIH Pain Research Training Grant NS07625. Dr. Yosipovitch was supported by the Rothschild Fellowship and the American Physicians Fellowship for Israel. We thank Dr. Howard Maibach for his invaluable assistance.
PY - 1996/6
Y1 - 1996/6
N2 - The relationship between deafferentation, sensory function, and pain was explored in 18 subjects with chronic postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Subjective thresholds for warmth, cooling, and heat pain were measured quantitatively in painful skin areas and compared with normal contralateral skin. The severity of allodynia was graded in the affected area. Two 3-mm punch biopsies were taken from the most painful skin area and one from unaffected contralateral mirror-image skin. Immunofluorescence with the axonal marker PGP 9.5 revealed a reduction in density of innervation of the epidermis, the dermal-epidermal junction, and the eccrine sweat glands in PHN skin. In painful PHN skin, the reduction in innervation density was positively correlated with the magnitude of the thermal sensory deficits. However, loss of cutaneous innervation was inversely correlated with allodynia, indicating that surviving cutaneous primary afferent nociceptors that are spontaneously active and/or sensitized contribute to PHN pain and allodynia.
AB - The relationship between deafferentation, sensory function, and pain was explored in 18 subjects with chronic postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Subjective thresholds for warmth, cooling, and heat pain were measured quantitatively in painful skin areas and compared with normal contralateral skin. The severity of allodynia was graded in the affected area. Two 3-mm punch biopsies were taken from the most painful skin area and one from unaffected contralateral mirror-image skin. Immunofluorescence with the axonal marker PGP 9.5 revealed a reduction in density of innervation of the epidermis, the dermal-epidermal junction, and the eccrine sweat glands in PHN skin. In painful PHN skin, the reduction in innervation density was positively correlated with the magnitude of the thermal sensory deficits. However, loss of cutaneous innervation was inversely correlated with allodynia, indicating that surviving cutaneous primary afferent nociceptors that are spontaneously active and/or sensitized contribute to PHN pain and allodynia.
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U2 - 10.1006/nbdi.1996.0021
DO - 10.1006/nbdi.1996.0021
M3 - Article
C2 - 8980021
AN - SCOPUS:0030175287
VL - 3
SP - 205
EP - 214
JO - Neurobiology of Disease
JF - Neurobiology of Disease
SN - 0969-9961
IS - 3
ER -