Thesis supervisor: Miklós Antal
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Anatómiai, Szövet- és Fejlődéstani Intézet Abbreviation of location of studies: AI
Description of the research topic:
Peripheral inflammation or various neuropathies of peripheral nerves generates a long lasting and enhanced excitation of nociceptive primary afferents (peripheral sensitization). The sensitized primary afferents conduct nerve signals to the spinal dorsal horn where they generate a unique excitation pattern, resulting in the loss of the fine balance between excitation and inhibition in neural circuits underlying pain processing and a consecutive development of central sensitization. In addition to over-excitation of spinal neurons, another phenomenon that contribute to the development of central sensitization is a remarkable attenuation of inhibition in spinal pain processing neural circuits. A growing body of evidence indicates that glycinergic neurons in the spinal dorsal horn play a critical role in these events. However, our present knowledge about the distribution, dendritic and axonal arbors as well as synaptic relations of glycinergic neurons in the spinal dorsal horn is very limited. It is poorly understood how glycinergic neurons contribute to the formation of neural circuits underlying spinal pain processing. The lack of this essential knowledge makes the interpretation of the role of spinal glycinergic neurons in the development of central sensitization vague. Thus, our present experiments will be focused on spinal glycinergic neurons. We intend to label this cell population with the aid of transgenic technologies. We intend to cross GlyT2::Cre mice (kind gift of Hans U. Zeilhofer, Zurich, Switzerland) with TdTomato and GFP reporter mice (purchased from Jackson Laboratories). Thus, glycinergic neurons will be labeled with fluorescent proteins. Then, we intend to study the distribution of the labeled neurons in the spinal dorsal horn, to trace their dendritic and axonal arbor, and to explore their synaptic relations. On the basis of these data we would like to define how glycinergic neurons contribute to the formation of pain processing neural circuits in the spinal dorsal horn.
Required language skills: angol Recommended language skills (in Hungarian): angol Number of students who can be accepted: 1
Deadline for application: 2018-02-16
2024. IV. 17. ODT ülés Az ODT következő ülésére 2024. június 14-én, pénteken 10.00 órakor kerül sor a Semmelweis Egyetem Szenátusi termében (Bp. Üllői út 26. I. emelet).
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