PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Yoshihiro Morikawa AU - Shinobu Tamura AU - Ken-ichi Minehata AU - Peter J. Donovan AU - Atsushi Miyajima AU - Emiko Senba TI - Essential Function of Oncostatin M in Nociceptive Neurons of Dorsal Root Ganglia AID - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4975-03.2004 DP - 2004 Feb 25 TA - The Journal of Neuroscience PG - 1941--1947 VI - 24 IP - 8 4099 - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/24/8/1941.short 4100 - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/24/8/1941.full SO - J. Neurosci.2004 Feb 25; 24 AB - Oncostatin M (OSM) is a member of the interleukin-6 family of cytokines, and we have reported previously that the murine OSM receptor β subunit (OSMR) was expressed in some neurons in the adult trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and in the perineonatal hypoglossal nucleus. In the present study, we investigated the development of OSMR-positive neurons of DRGs in OSM-deficient mice. In situ hybridization revealed that OSMR-positive neurons in DRGs began to appear at postnatal day 0 (P0) and reached the adult level at P14. In the DRGs of the OSM-deficient mice, vanilloid receptor 1 (VR1)- and P2X3-positive small-sized neurons were significantly decreased. In addition, OSMR-positive neurons decreased, resulting in the reduced number of VR1/P2X3/OSMR-triple positive neurons. OSM-deficient mice displayed significantly reduced noxious responses in models of acute thermal, mechanical, chemical, and visceral pain. Thus, OSM plays an essential role in the development of a subtype of nociceptive neurons in the DRGs.