Summary: A new study explores the link between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and chronic pain. The research found that hypoxia increases pain sensitivity by recruiting macrophages to sensory nerve tissues. This discovery highlights potential targets for treating pain in OSA patients.
Key Takeaways
- Hypoxia and Pain: Hypoxia from OSA increases pain sensitivity in sensory nerves.
- Macrophage Role: The increased pain sensitivity is due to macrophages recruited to neural tissues.
- Treatment Potential: Targeting hypoxia or macrophage signaling may help reduce chronic pain in OSA patients.
Hypoxia can increase the abundance of circulating macrophages that are recruited to sensory nerve tissue where they increase pain sensitivity, according to a new study in mice.
The findings by Samuel Chivers, a research association at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and colleagues shed light on the mechanisms that connect obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and chronic pain and suggest new targets to treat this pain. The study is published in Science Signaling.
People with OSA have higher rates of chronic musculoskeletal pain, rheumatic arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other diagnosed pain, but there has been little research on the exact mechanisms that connect pain and OSA.
Study in Mice
In a 14-day experiment, Chivers and colleagues exposed mice to chronic intermittent hypoxia (to mimic OSA), which resulted in pain behaviors and biochemical markers of increased pain sensitivity, the latter located in the spinal cord dorsal horn and sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia.
The transition to greater pain sensitivity depended on an increase in circulating macrophages that traveled to the neural tissues, the researchers found.
“The findings suggest that correcting the hypoxia or targeting macrophage signaling might suppress persistent pain in patients with OSA,” the authors write.
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