Expression de la protéine c-Fos dans la corne dorsale de la moelle épinière : une technique pour étudier certains aspects physiopharmacologiques de la nociception.

Abstract

De nombreux travaux utilisent la mise en evidence de la proteine c-Fos par immunohistochimie dans les noyaux des neurones comme marqueur d 'activite neuronale. La proteine c-Fos est codee par le gene c-fos, un gene a expression precoce immediate, qui est rapidement active a la suite de differents types de stimulations, y compris des stimulations nociceptives. Meme si l' expression de la proteine c-Fos, notamment au niveau de la moelle epiniere, est largement utilisee pour certaines etudes physiopharmacologiques, l' utilisation de cette technique dans le domaine de la douleur reste discutee. Considerant les avantages et certaines limites de cette approche, nous presentons les arguments en faveur de l' utilisation de la technique c-Fos pour aborder certains aspects physiopharmacologiques de processus nociceptifs, notamment ceux d' origine inflammatoire.

The expression of nuclear protein c-Fos encoded by the immediate-early gene c-fos has been shown as one possible anatomical indicator of neuronal activity. At the spinal cord level, especially in the dorsal horn neurons, the c-Fos protein expression evoked by nociceptive stimulation has been extensively used as an indirect marker of neurons involved in spinal nociceptive transmission. Furthermore, there is clear evidence for the effects of various anti-inflammatory/analgesic substances on spinal c-Fos protein expression evoked by peripheral noxious stimulation, particularly that having inflammatory origin. However, there are still a number of ambiguities concerning the meaning, validity and specificity of c-Fos protein expression as a marker of neuronal activity which should be considered. Considering numerous advantages, but also limitations, of the c-Fos technique, we provide arguments in favour of the use of the c-Fos technique at the level of the spinal cord to study physiopharmacological aspects of nociception, especially of inflammatory nociceptive processes.