Expression Profiling Of Spinal Genes In Peripheral Neuropathy Model Rats With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Pre-clinical diabetic peripheral neuropathy models mimicking the human condition are essential to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Type 2 diabetic patients coping with peripheral neuropathy experience chronic pain. Spinal genes monitoring is thus required to clarify diabetic peripheral neuropathy mechanisms and refine treatments. Thus, in this study, we investigated the differentially expressed genes in the cervical spinal cord from diabetic neuropathic pain model (D group) and vehicle control (C Group) mice. Results from gene microarrays showed that 35 genes were significantly altered in cervical spinal cord of D group compared with C group. Among them, 25 genes were significantly up-regulated while the other 9 down-regulated. These differentially expressed genes were involved in inflammatory signaling, ion transport, protein phosphorylation, sensory perception, cell survival synaptic transmission, and synergistic regulation. These findings suggest that aberrant expressed genes may become new targets to study the pathogenesis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and deserve further investigation for therapeutic interventions following pain modulation.