Grant: Operating Grant

One of the biggest advances in our understanding of basic mechanisms underlying chronic pain is that neurons are not the only cells involved, but rather that cells of the immune system, even within the nervous system, play an important role as well. As is typical in pain research, the vast majority of existing studies documenting the role of immune cells in pain have been conducted on male subjects. We have preliminary data suggesting that the relative importance of certain immune cells in pain is strikingly sex-specific, with microglia appearing to play an exclusive role in male mice and T-helper cells perhaps being more important in female mice. The proposed studies will verify and extend this hypothesis. These studies have important implications for analgesic drug development, since microglial inhibitors are currently undergoing clinical trials; our data suggest they will be ineffective in women, who comprise the clear majority of chronic pain patients.