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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 5, 2005, 25(40):9227-9235; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3051-05.2005

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Development/Plasticity/Repair
Activin Induces Tactile Allodynia and Increases Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide after Peripheral Inflammation

Pin Xu,¹ Charles Van Slambrouck,^1,2 Liliana Berti-Mattera,³ and Alison K. Hall^1,4

Departments of ¹Neuroscience, ²Biology, ³Pathology, and ⁴Pharmacology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a sensory neuropeptide important in inflammatory pain that conveys pain information centrally and dilates blood vessels peripherally. Previous studies indicate that activin A increases CGRP-immunoreactive (IR) sensory neurons in vitro, and following wound, activin A protein increases in the skin and more neurons have detectable CGRP expression in the innervating dorsal root ganglion (DRG). These data suggest some adult sensory neurons respond to activin A or other target-derived factors with increased neuropeptide expression. This study was undertaken to test whether activin contributes to inflammatory pain and increased CGRP and to learn which neurons retained plasticity. After adjuvant-induced inflammation, activin mRNA, but not NGF or glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, increased in the skin. To examine which DRG neurons increased CGRP immunoreactivity, retrograde tracer-labeled cutaneous neurons were characterized after inflammation. The proportion and size of tracer-labeled DRG neurons with detectable CGRP increased after inflammation. One-third of CGRP-IR neurons that appear after inflammation also had isolectin B4 binding, suggesting that some mechanoreceptors became CGRP-IR. In contrast, the increased proportion of CGRP-IR neurons did not appear to come from RT97-IR neurons. To learn whether central projections were altered after inflammation, CGRP immunoreactivity in the protein kinase C-IR lamina IIi was quantified and found to increase. Injection of activin A protein alone caused robust tactile allodynia and increased CGRP in the DRG. Together, these data support the hypothesis that inflammation and skin changes involving activin A cause some sensory neurons to increase CGRP expression and pain responses.

Key words: activin; NGF; CGRP; inflammation; tactile allodynia; sensory neurons

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Received May 13, 2005; revised August 26, 2005; accepted August 27, 2005.

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