Study on gate control theory of pain by two-photon microsucopy using gene-engineered mice.

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Peripheral stimuli in the skin are selected in the dorsal horn of spinal cord, and noxious stimuli are recognized as pain in the brain. In order to clarify the selection mechanism in the spinal cord, we established the imaging system for the spinal network which can chase for a long time in vivo using two-photon microscopy and gene-engineered mice expressing fluorescent protein. In this study, we demonstrated that intensity of neurites and puncta in the spinal cord increased for 30 min to 4 hours after injection of formalin in the foot, and that a network of neurons which respond to mechanical, touch, and thermal stimuli to the skin was visualized in vivo in fluorescent protein-expressing mice.