Fig. 3.

Neuropathic pain up-regulated the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and induced microglia activation in rat spinal cord dorsal horn. Real-time RT-PCR showed that CCI surgery significantly increased the expression of IL-1β (a), TNF-α (b), and IL-6 (c) in the ipsilateral spinal cord dorsal horn at each time point. All mRNA levels were normalized to the level of β-actin mRNA. d, g Representative image of protein levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, and Iba-1. Quantitative analysis of Western blotting results showed that CCI surgery significantly increased the expression of IL-1β (e), TNF-α (f), IL-6 (h), and Iba-1 (i) in the ipsilateral spinal cord dorsal horn at each time point. The data are expressed as the means ± SD (n = 8 in each group). *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 versus the sham group. Statistical significance was determined by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc Tukey test