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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Gastroenterology. 2012 Nov 8;144(3):570–579.e3. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.11.001

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Increase in BDNF expression in gastric-specific dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons and in thoracic spinal cord segments contributed to gastric hypersensitivity. A. Photomicrographs of sections from T9 DRG showing gastric neurons, identified by uptake of retrograde label, CTB-488 (green) and isolated by laser capture micro-dissection. B. qTR-PCR showed a significant 2.5-fold increase in BDNF mRNA and a significant 50% decrease in Kv1.1 mRNA levels in gastric neurons from FD-like rats compared to controls. The mRNA expression of other genes was not affected (n=4 rats each, *p<0.05). C. ELISA showed increased BDNF protein in thoracic spinal cord segments of FD-like rats vs. controls (*p<0.05, n=5 rats each). D. Intrathecal treatment with BDNF antagonist trkB-Fc, once daily for five consecutive days significantly reduced the VMR to gastric distention in FD-like rats compared to pre-treatment baseline and to vehicle-treated FD-like rats (*p<0.05 vs. vehicle, n=5 rats each).