C-fos can be induced in the neonatal rat spinal cord by both noxious and innocuous peripheral stimulation

The development of spinal cord nociceptive pathways has been investigated in neonatal rat pups using the expression of Fos immunoreactivity in laminae I and II cells produced by high and low intensity skin stimulation. Noxious pinch of the hindpaw evoked a clear response in the newborn rat pup, which was not significantly different from that seen at postnatal day (P) 21. Low intensity touch stimulation also produced a significant fos response in laminae I and II cells at P3 which was 60% that of the pinch response. This was reduced to 27% of the pinch response by P10 and was gone by P21. Electrical stimulation through percutaneous electrodes showed that A beta fibre stimulation also produced a fos response at P3 that was not significantly different from that produced by C fibre stimulation. By P21 and P30 the response to C fibre stimulation was much greater and the response to A fibre stimulation was not significantly above background. The results suggest that in the neonatal spinal cord, low threshold A fibres are able to activate pathways in lamina I and II of the dorsal horn that in the adult are predominantly nociceptive.