Neuron：胚胎干细胞用于治疗神经性疼痛

近日，加州大学旧金山分校的科学家们发现使用胚胎干细胞能用来治疗神经性疼痛。

加州大学旧金山分校的科学家完成的一项新研究证实：细胞疗法可能有一天被用来治疗一些常见类型的疼痛症状。

研究人员在小鼠身上开展的研究，关注于治疗神经损伤引起的慢性疼痛即所谓的神经性疼痛。

相关研究论文发表在Neuron杂志上，在他们的研究中，科学家们在老鼠大脑中移植不成熟的胚胎神经细胞，在大脑中神经细胞被用来更新特定的功能丧失的神经元。

移植的细胞中有一小部分存活，并发育成成熟的神经细胞。这些神经细胞融入脊髓神经细胞信号交流环路中。

州大学旧金山分校解剖学教研室主任Allan Basbaum博士说：现在我们正在积极开发潜在的治疗方法，尽可能消除神经性疼痛的来源。

虽然受伤后的疼痛和过敏反应通常会得到治愈，但在某些情况下这些症状会长久对身体造成伤害，引发慢性疼痛。引发慢性疼痛的原因很多但基本上是无害的如轻触刺激等。

神经性疼痛是指由中枢或外周神经系统原发性病变或功能障碍而引起的疼痛综合征。可由外伤或/和疾病致末梢神经,高频重复经颅磁刺激(rTMS)可有效治疗神经性疼痛，尤其是三叉神经痛(TGN)和卒中后疼痛(PSP)。

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.02.033
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Forebrain GABAergic Neuron Precursors Integrate into Adult Spinal Cord and Reduce Injury-Induced Neuropathic Pain

Joo M. Bráz , Reza Sharif-Naeini, Daniel Vogt, Arnold Kriegstein, Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, John L. Rubenstein, Allan I. Basbaum

Neuropathic pain is a chronic debilitating disease characterized by mechanical allodynia and spontaneous pain. Because symptoms are often unresponsive to conventional methods of pain treatment, new therapeutic approaches are essential. Here, we describe a strategy that not only ameliorates symptoms of neuropathic pain but is also potentially disease modifying. We show that transplantation of immature telencephalic GABAergic interneurons from the mouse medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) into the adult mouse spinal cord completely reverses the mechanical hypersensitivity produced by peripheral nerve injury. Underlying this improvement is a remarkable integration of the MGE transplants into the host spinal cord circuitry, in which the transplanted cells make functional connections with both primary afferent and spinal cord neurons. By contrast, MGE transplants were not effective against inflammatory pain. Our findings suggest that MGE-derived GABAergic interneurons overcome the spinal cord hyperexcitability that is a hallmark of nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain.