Gene expression signatures for lumber 5 dorsal horn of spinal cord in spinal nerve ligation (SNL) mice with WTD intervention

For development of gene expression of L5 spinal tissue in SNL mice, L5 spinal nerve was first tightly ligated to construct the neuropathic pain model, and sham-operated group as a control. After chronic administrations of vehicle (distilled water, 10 mg/kg) or WTD (12.60 g/kg, p.o.), L5 spinal cord of dorsal horn were collected, and then, Agilent Whole Mouse Genome Microarray 4×44K expression profiling were employed as a discovery platform to identify genes with the potential to provide basis for the clinical application of WTD for neuropathic pain. A 579-gene consensus signature was identified that distinguished between sham and SNL samples, and a 456-gene consensus signature was identified that distinguished between WTD and SNL samples. Expression of 12 genes (Crk1, Fgf13, Fgfr1, Crk1, Adrbk1, Erbb3, Gnas, Vegfa, Crk1, Erbb3, Drd2, Gnas) were identified as the efficacy of differentially expressed genes. Gene expression in lumber 5 dorsal horn of spinal cord of ICR mice was measured 21 days after chronic administration of vehicle (saline, 10 ml/kg, p.o.), vehicle (saline, 10 ml/kg, p.o.) and WTD (12.60 g/kg, p.o.) in sham group, SNL group and WTD group, respectively.