疼痛是正畸治疗中最常见和棘手的问题之一，如何有效控制正畸疼痛，已越来越受到医师和患者的共同关注。课题组研究发现，瞬时受体电位香草酸亚型1（TRPV1）与牙移动疼痛关系密切。新近研究资料也表明TRPV1在杏仁中央核内广泛表达。据此，本项目拟以野生型C57BL/6J小鼠和TRPV1CeAKO基因敲除小鼠为研究对象，建立实验性牙移动模型，以杏仁中央核为靶区，应用行为学，形态学，神经药理学，分子生物学及电生理学等技术，观察实验性牙齿移动过程中，小鼠痛觉行为和应激反应的改变及杏仁中央核内TRPV1的表达变化；分析杏仁中央核内TRPV1介导牙移动疼痛调控的下游分子机制；研究牙移动过程中杏仁中央核内TRPV1调制痛觉突触传递的电生理学机制，从而揭示杏仁中央核内TRPV1在牙移动疼痛信号传递中的重要作用及杏仁水平的可能调控机制，为进一步探索正畸疼痛有效干预措施提供有益的研究资料和科学依据。

Dentofacial anomaly is one of the most frequent oral diseases in dental practice, thus orthodontic treatment is of essential significance in health improvement. However, orthodontic treatment is always accompanied with pain and mental disorder such as anxiety and depressing. Orthodontic pain not only seriously affects the quality of patients’ life, but also directly interferes with orthodontic treatment quality improvement. Therefore, how to control pain effectively has become the key to optimize orthodontic treatment. Recent studies have shown that the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) is an important center of pain control. Meanwhile, transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is widely expressed in the CeA. Moreover, our data also shows that TRPV1 is related to the pain induced by tooth movement, but the mechanism is not yet clear. In view of this, we plan to use comprehensive behavioral test, immunofluorescence, molecular biological and electrophysiological techniques to observe the expression change of TRPV1 in the CeA during the tooth movement in wild-type C57BL/6J mice, and explore the behavioral change in wild-type and TRPV1CeAKO mice. Moreover, we also intend to analyze the molecular mechanism of TRPV1-mediated pain in the CeA and study the electrophysiological changes of TRPV1 neurons in the CeA. This knowledge will further elucidate the mechanism of TRPV1-mediated pain caused by tooth movement and provide a useful basis for the development of scientific and effective analgesic drugs to treat orthodontic pain.