RNA Expression Profiling of spinal cord tissues in a Rat Model of Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain (NP), defined as a complex chronic pain state caused by somatosensory nervous system lesions or diseases, is currently the most challenging clinical neurological disorder in the world. The main signs and symptoms of NP include spontaneous pain, abnormal pain and hyperalgesia. It is generally believed that the specific pathological causes of NP include spinal cord or peripheral spinal cord injury, postherpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and tumor invasion. While the critical role of mRNA in NP is well recognized, the involvement of mRNA in the development of NP remains to be elucidated. Therefore, in this study, we explored changes in mRNA expression profiles through transcriptome sequencing to provide a landscape of mRNA dysregulation in the NP spinal cord. Overall design: First of all, Spared nerve injury (SNI) induced NP rats and sham rats were established. Total RNA from SNI rat spinal cord tissues were extracted using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, USA) following the manufacturer's instruction,in triplicates, and high throughput sequencing of mRNA was performed byIllumina HiSeq 6000.