Laboratory of Neuroglycobiology and Sensation - Honours in 2010
An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Anatomy & Histology.
‘peripheral’ nociceptors and ‘central’ glial cells to the development of chronic neuropathic pain states
Supervisor + contact details:
- Dr Michelle Gerke
Research in this lab is currently focussing on the contribution of both ‘peripheral’ nociceptors and ‘central’ glial cells to the development of chronic neuropathic pain states in an attempt to elucidate a link between these cells types and the perpetuation of sensory abnormalities. Neuropathic pain is a persistent pain state that arises from damage to the nervous system and is usually accompanied by sensory abnormalities including hyperalgesia and allodynia. The animal model used in these projects has been shown to closely reflect the neuropathic pain state experienced by humans.
Whilst the main project on offer is made up of a number of ‘puzzle pieces’, our primary focus to date has been assessing the effect of nerve damage on the expression of the sugar code of nociceptors and the time course of microglial infiltration into the area of the superficial dorsal horn innervated by the injured nerve. Recent work from our laboratory has shown that alterations in nociceptors and microglia occur at the same anatomical location within the spinal cord of animals showing sensory dysfunction after nerve injury. The next step is to resolve whether or not glial infiltration is actually triggered by the altered nociceptors and to investigate whether the prevention of ‘glial triggering’ effectively stops pain perpetuation or sensory dysfunction.
Our current approach to unravelling the neuron glial-link is to exploit the neuronal sugar code and use targeted cell death as a means to remove specific cell types from the neuropathic pain equation. The rationale here is that removal of particular cell types from the equation will allow us to assess the role that particular cell types play in neuropathic pain development and perpetuation. These projects are also pointed towards assessing the efficacy of such targeted cell death as a selective and long lasting pain therapy.
Results from these projects will help build on our current knowledge of the mechanisms underlying chronic pain perpetuation whilst giving students an opportunity to gain research skills and a more through understanding of some of the cellular players in pain transmission and perpetuation. Students will gain skills and experience in animal handling, sensory and behavioural testing, surgery, tissue collection, histological and immunostaining techniques along with fluorescence microscopy and image analysis.
