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Updated: Dec 29, 2025
Burn Injury-Induced Pain and Depression-Like Behavior in Mice
Published on: September 29, 2021
A Central Amygdala-Ventrolateral Periaqueductal Gray Matter Pathway for Pain in a Mouse Model of Depression-like
Weiwei Yin1, Lisheng Mei, Tingting Sun
1From the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease of Chinese Academy of Science, Department of Biophysics and Neurobiology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China (W.Y., L.M., T.S., Y.W., Jie Li, C.C., Z.F., Y.M., W.T., Juan Li, Z.Z.) the Department of Psychology, Anhui Mental Health Center, Hefei, China (W.X., Z.Z.) the Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China (Y.M., W.T.).
Background:
The mechanisms underlying depression-associated pain remain poorly understood. Using a mouse model of depression, the authors hypothesized that the central amygdala-periaqueductal gray circuitry is involved in pathologic nociception associated with depressive states.
Methods:
The authors used chronic restraint stress to create a mouse model of nociception with depressive-like behaviors. They then used retrograde tracing strategies to dissect the pathway from the central nucleus of the amygdala to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray. The authors performed optogenetic and chemogenetic experiments to manipulate the activity of this pathway to explore its roles for nociception.
Results:
The authors found that γ-aminobutyric acid-mediated (GABAergic) neurons from the central amygdala project onto GABAergic neurons of the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, which, in turn, locally innervate their adjacent glutamatergic neurons. After chronic restraint stress, male mice displayed reliable nociception (control, mean ± SD: 0.34 ± 0.11 g, n = 7 mice; chronic restraint stress, 0.18 ± 0.11 g, n = 9 mice, P = 0.011). Comparable nociception phenotypes were observed in female mice. After chronic restraint stress, increased circuit activity was generated by disinhibition of glutamatergic neurons of the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray by local GABAergic interneurons via receiving enhanced central amygdala GABAergic inputs. Inhibition of this circuit increased nociception in chronic restraint stress mice (median [25th, 75th percentiles]: 0.16 [0.16, 0.16] g to 0.07 [0.04, 0.16] g, n = 7 mice per group, P < 0.001). In contrast, activation of this pathway reduced nociception (mean ± SD: 0.16 ± 0.08 g to 0.34 ± 0.13 g, n = 7 mice per group, P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that the central amygdala-ventrolateral periaqueductal gray pathway may mediate some aspects of pain symptoms under depression conditions.
