Chemogenetic activation of astrocytes promotes remyelination and restores cognitive deficits in visceral hypersensitive rats

Central mechanisms of acupuncture in relieving visceral hypersensitivity in functional gastrointestinal disorders: A narrative review

“…[18] Meanwhile, the hypothalamus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and ACC process visceral pain perception and emotional experience. [34] Central nervous system has emerged as a potential therapeutic target for alleviating VH. [84] Acupuncture has remarkable potential to relieve VH in FGIDs.…”

“…The hypothalamus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of the cerebral cortex all play critical roles in pain perception, producing pain sensations and psychological responses. [33] Mahadi Hasan et al [34] reported that VH rats exhibited a significant reduction in decision making for favorable choices and developed neuroinflammation and astrocytosis in the ACC. In 1988, Ness and Gebhart [35] introduced the real-time step-down avoidance learning assay to measure CRD-induced nociception.…”

Neural circuits regulating visceral pain

“…Myelination accelerates nerve impulse propagation along the axon, facilitating long-range oscillations and synchronous spike-time arrivals between neurons in different brain regions and promoting plasticity 51 , 92 . Recent evidence suggested that myelin formation was impaired in human subjects and animal models of chronic visceral pain 93 , 94 . Repeated activation of the BLA-ACC pathway impaired myelination and triggered depressive-like behaviors in naive mice 57 .…”

“…After demyelination, the differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells contributes to effective myelin regeneration, while mature oligodendrocytes may cause inefficient and mistargeted myelin regeneration to a lesser extent 95 . Chronic visceral hypersensitivity downregulated the MyRF gene, which encodes a transcription factor necessary for the differentiation of immature oligodendrocytes to mature oligodendrocytes, preventing oligodendrocyte maturation and myelination and ultimately resulting in the hypomyelination of the ACC in rats with visceral hypersensitivity evoked by intraperitoneal injection of chicken egg albumin 94 . Astrocytes promote myelin structure and conduction velocity by directly participating in the proliferation, differentiation and migration of oligodendrocytes 93 .…”

“…Astrocytes promote myelin structure and conduction velocity by directly participating in the proliferation, differentiation and migration of oligodendrocytes 93 . Previous studies have shown that the development of reactive astrogliosis in rats with chronic visceral hypersensitivity is induced by the intraperitoneal injection of chicken egg albumin 94 , 96 . Astrocytic Gq pathway activation in the ACC induced oligodendrocyte progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation and enhanced oligodendrocyte regeneration, maturation, and myelination, which repaired visceral hypersensitivity-induced impairments in ACC–amygdala spike-field synchrony 94 .…”