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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Pain. 2015 Mar;156(3):469–482. doi: 10.1097/01.j.pain.0000460333.79127.be

Figure 9. SNI is required for pioglitazone reduction of pain and astrocyte activation.

Figure 9

To determine whether pioglitazone is toxic to astrocytes and to rule out conformational changes in the GFAP antibody epitope during immunohistochemical analysis we performed a denaturing western blot. Spinal cord quadrants (L4–5) were harvested 90 min after i.p. pioglitazone administration at d14 after sham or spared nerve injury (SNI) surgery. (A) Pioglitazone attenuated mechanical hypersensitivity in SNI, but not sham, animals. (B) Dorsal and (C) Ventral integrated densities normalized to Sham + Saline are shown. There was no effect of injury or drug treatment in the ventral horn or in the contralateral dorsal horn segments. GFAP expression was increased in the ipsilateral dorsal horn of SNI + Saline animals when compared to all other groups. Pioglitazone significantly reduced ipsilateral dorsal horn GFAP expression in SNI, but not sham, animals. This suggests that the anti-hyperalgesic effects of pioglitazone are associated with decreased astrocyte activation after nerve injury. ★ significantly different from “SNI + Saline”. n=6–7 per group.