The Polymodal Receptor - A Gateway to Pathological Pain: Volume 113(Volume 113 Progress in Brain Research)

This volume is derived from a celebration of the career of Professor Takao Kumazawa at Nagoya University and includes papers from investigators throughout the world whose contributions are dedicated to his honour. Topics range from current studies and reviews of the impact of modern molecular biology on the contemporary knowledge of polymodal receptors, to reflections related to the career and lifetime achievements of a pioneer neurophysiologist who has focused on relatively simple modal systems, especially those concerned with deep or visceral sensing mechanisms and their role in the broad behavioral spectrum constituting pain.

Table of Contents:
List of Contributors. Preface. Section I - Introduction. 1. The polymodal receptor - Bio-warning and defence mechanisms. Section II - Nociceptors in Various Tissues. 2. Cutaneous polymodal receptors: characteristics and plasticity. 3. Sixty years of C-fiber recordings from animal and human skin nerves. Historical notes. 4. The articular polymodal nociceptor in health and disease. 5. Group III and IV receptors in skeletal muscle: Are they specific or polymodal? 6. Visceral polymodal receptors. Section III - Modulation of Polymodal Receptor Activities in Pathological Conditions. 7. Modulation of nociceptor responses by inflammatory mediators and second messengers implicated in their action - a study in canine testicular polymodal receptors. 8. Tissue acidosis in nociception and pain. 9. Sympathetic modulation of cutaneous polymodal receptors in chronically inflamed and diabetic rats. 10. Interactions of sympathetic and primary afferent neurons following nerve injury and tissue trauma. 11. Human polymodal receptors in pathological conditions. Section IV - Signal Transduction Mechanisms. 12. Signal transduction in nociceptive afferent neurons in inflammatory conditions. 13. Bradykinin B2 receptors and signal transduction analyzed in NG108-15 neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid cells, B2 receptor-transformed CHO cells and ras-transformed NIH/3T3 fibroblasts. 14. Prostanoid receptors and signal transduction. 15. Molecules relating to the neurogenesis of the sensory ganglion. Section V - Peripheral and Central Morphology of Nociceptors. 16. The functional morphology of thin sensory axons: some principles and problems. 17. Functional morphology of nociceptive and other fine sensory endings (free nerve endings) in different tissues. 18. Neuropeptides in dural fine sensory nerve endings - involvement in neurogenic inflammation? 19. Spinal organization of C-fiber afferents related to nociception or non-nociception. Section VI - Signaling with Neuropeptides. 20. Capsaicin-sensitive sensory nerve terminals with local and systemic efferent functions: facts and scopes of an unorthodox neuroregulatory mechanism. 21. Neurogenic inflammation caused by cutaneous polymodal receptors. 22. Peptides and cutaneous polymodal nociceptor neurones. 23. Sensory afferent processing in multi-responsive DRG neurons. Section VII - Spinal Processing and Reflex Effects of Polymodal Receptors. 24. Spinal cord mechanisms of hyperalgesia and allodynia: role of peripheral input from nociceptors. 25. On the role of tachykinins and calcitonin gene-related peptide in the spinal mechanisms of nociception and in the induction and maintenance of inflammation-evoked hyperexcitability in spinal cord neurons (with special reference to nociception in joints). 26. Slow synaptic transmission in the spinal dorsal horn. 27. Plasticity of excitatory synaptic transmission in the spinal cord dorsal horn. 28. Role of polymodal receptors in the acupuncture-mediated endogenous pain inhibitory systems. 29. Modulations of autonomic functions by somatic nociceptive inputs. Subject index.

About the Author :
Lawrence Kruger has received several honors including the Lederle Medical Faculty, Wellcome Professor, Fogarty Senior International Scholar, and Javits Neuroscience Investigator Awards. He is the founding editor of Somatosensory and Motor Research and serves on the editorial board of several scientific journals. His publications include more than 150 papers and book contributions; he has also recently published an atlas of the rat brain (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and served as editor of volumes in the field of pain. Dr. Kruger is a Professor of Neurobiology and Anesthesiology at the UCLA Medical Center. He received a Ph.D. in Physiology at Yale University and post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins, the College de France, and Oxford University, spending the remainder of his career at the University of California. His research has extended from animal behavioral studies and psychophysics to electrophysiology of sensory pathways and in more recent years to electron microscopy and chemical neuroanatomy relevant to touch and pain systems.