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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Adult Mouse DRG Explant and Dissociated Cell Models to Investigate Neuroplasticity and Responses to Environmental Insults Including Viral Infection
Published on: March 9, 2018
Remote neuroimmune signaling: a long-range mechanism of nociceptive network plasticity
1Department of Surgery, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown Alpert Medical School and Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. carl_saab@brown.edu
Abstract:
Chronic pain secondary to neuronal injury is actively and continuously modulated at multiple locations along the sensory neuraxis. Here, we describe how nociceptive neurons of the spinal cord and thalamus process and communicate nociceptive information in terms of precisely calibrated firing patterns. We then discuss how several cell types with immunogenic properties (e.g. blood cells and glia) cause system-wide interference in nociceptive processing through novel signaling schema, thus contributing to nociceptive network plasticity and chronic pain.
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Synaptic Signaling
Most synapses are chemical, meaning an electrical impulse or action potential spurs the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The neuron sending the signal is called the presynaptic neuron, and the neuron receiving the signal is the postsynaptic neuron.
The presynaptic neuron fires an action potential that...