2001 NREF-Medtronic Research Fellow

Laurie L. Ackerman, MD
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
Chairman: John C. VanGilder, MD
Sponsor: Donna L. Hammond, PhD

Research Title: GABAergic Mechanisms of Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is a devastating condition that may arise from a loss of GABA-mediated inhibition in the spinal cord. However, this hypothesis has not incorporated recent molecular advances concerning the plasticity and complexity of GABA receptors, and findings that nerve injury induces inappropriate sprouting of A afferents. These studies will determine how the distribution and composition of GABA receptors on immunohistochemically-identified populations of primary afferents change after injury and whether these changes occur on adjacent uninjured afferents. These results will be related to the occurrence of tactile allodynia after injury, and will provide new insight into mechanisms of neuropathic pain.