Genetic Studies Of Pain In Humans And Animal Models

我们与NIDCR和以色列希伯来大学的科学家合作，开始了关于疼痛感知和反应差异的遗传基础的研究。我们正在研究经历过创伤性肢体截肢的人类受试者，评估基因变异与幻肢疼痛风险的关系。我们还在评估一种被称为自体切断术的小鼠疼痛模型。后一项工作涉及我们开发了新的统计方法，适用于对重组自交系育种设计中获得的分类数据进行稳健分析。人类和动物的研究都发现了特定的染色体区域和候选基因，这些区域位于这些区域，被认为参与调节疼痛感知和反应。跟进这些发现的进一步研究包括在小鼠模型中进行更多的育种研究，以及对更多的人类受试者进行评估。

We have initiated studies of the genetic basis for differences in pain perception and response in collaboration with scientists at the NIDCR and at Hebrew University in Israel. We are studying human subjects who have experienced traumatic limb amputation, evaluating associations of genetic variants with risk of phantom limb pain. We are also evaluating a mouse model of pain known as autotomy. The latter work involved our development of new statistical methods suitable for the robust analysis of categorical data obtained in the recombinant inbred strain breeding design. Both human and animal studies have resulted in findings that implicate specific chromosomal regions and candidate genes which are located in these regions that are thought to be involved in mediating pain perception and response. Further studies to follow up on these findings include additional breeding studies in the mouse model and evaluations of additional human subjects.