The role of the anterior pretectal nucleus in pain modulation: A comprehensive review

Cerebral hemodynamics as biomarkers for neuropathic pain in rats: a longitudinal study using a spinal nerve ligation model

ABSTRACT

Neuropathic pain is one of the most challenging types of pain to diagnose and treat, a problem exacerbated by the lack of a quantitative biomarker. Recently, several clinical and preclinical studies have shown that neuropathic pain induces cerebral hemodynamic changes as a result of neuroplasticity in the brain. Our hypothesis in this study is that neuropathic pain leads to cerebral hemodynamic changes over postoperative time in a spinal nerve ligation (SNL) rat model, which has not been longitudinally explored previously. Furthermore, by identifying multiple regional hemodynamic features that are the most distinct between SNL and sham groups, where the sham group underwent only an incision without SNL, it may be possible to classify the SNL group regardless of when the onset of pain occurs. We investigate cerebral hemodynamic changes using dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging in a rat model up to 28 days after ligating L5/L6 spinal nerves. We trained a linear support vector machine with relative cerebral blood volume data from different brain regions and found that the prediction model trained on the nucleus accumbens, motor cortex, pretectal area, and thalamus classified the SNL group and sham group at a 79.27% balanced accuracy, regardless of when the onset of pain occurred (SNL/sham: 60/45 data points). From the use of the SNL model without prior knowledge of the onset time of pain, the current findings highlight the potential of relative cerebral blood volume in the 4 highlighted brain regions as a biomarker for neuropathic pain.

Single-neuron projectomes of mouse paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus oxytocin neurons reveal mutually exclusive projection patterns

Oxytocin (OXT) plays important roles in autonomic control and behavioral modulation. However, it is unknown how the projection patterns of OXT neurons align with underlying physiological functions. Here, we present the reconstructed single-neuron, whole-brain projectomes of 264 OXT neurons of the mouse paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVH) at submicron resolution. These neurons hierarchically clustered into two groups, with distinct morphological and transcriptional characteristics and mutually exclusive projection patterns. Cluster 1 (177 neurons) axons terminated exclusively in the median eminence (ME) and have few collaterals terminating within hypothalamic regions. By contrast, cluster 2 (87 neurons) sent wide-spread axons to multiple brain regions, but excluding ME. Dendritic arbors of OXT neurons also extended outside of the PVH, suggesting capability to sense signals and modulate target regions. These single-neuron resolution observations reveal distinct OXT subpopulations, provide comprehensive analysis of their morphology, and lay the structural foundation for better understanding the functional heterogeneity of OXT neurons.

Targeted photothrombotic subcortical small vessel occlusion using in vivo real-time fiber bundle endomicroscopy in mice

The development of an accurate subcortical small vessel occlusion model for pathophysiological studies of subcortical ischemic stroke is still insignificant. In this study, in vivo real-time fiber bundle endomicroscopy (FBEµ) was applied to develop subcortical photothrombotic small vessel occlusion model in mice with minimal invasiveness. Our FBFµ system made it possible to precisely target specific blood vessels in deep brain and simultaneously observe the clot formation and blood flow blockage inside the target blood vessel during photochemical reactions. A fiber bundle probe was directly inserted into the anterior pretectal nucleus of the thalamus in brain of live mice to induce a targeted occlusion in small vessels. Then, targeted photothrombosis was performed using a patterned laser, observing the process through the dual-color fluorescence imaging. On day one post occlusion, infarct lesions are measured using TTC staining and post hoc histology. The results show that FBEµ applied to targeted photothrombosis can successfully generate a subcortical small vessel occlusion model for lacunar stroke.