Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 288, Issue 2, 14 July 2000, Pages 123-126
Neuroscience Letters

Peripheral modulation of rat knee joint afferent mechanosensitivity by nociceptin/orphanin FQ

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(00)01211-8Get rights and content

Abstract

The peripheral effects of nociceptin were examined in normal and acutely inflamed rat knee joints by analyzing single unit recordings from articular primary afferents in response to normal and extreme rotation of the knee. Bolus close intraarterial injection of nociceptin (0.01, 1 and 100 μM) caused a sensitization of normal and inflamed knee joint afferents in response to movements in the normal working range of the joint. When the joint was hyper-rotated, nociceptin had no significant effect on afferent discharge rate in normal knees, however, in inflamed joints the top dose of the neuropeptide caused a decrease in articular mechanosensitivity. These findings suggest that nociceptin seems to be involved in the control of peripheral nociceptive mechanisms, although the behaviour of the peptide is dependent upon the inflammatory status of the tissue.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mrs M. Oppmann and T. Hoffmann for their technical expertise. This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 353/B10. JJMCD received financial support from the Medical Research Council of Canada, and the Ernst and Young Joint Injury and Arthritis Research Fellowship.

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