Abstract
Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) signaling is known to play key roles in the initiation and maintenance of various chronic pain models. Here we examined whether LPA signaling is also involved in diabetes-induced abnormal pain behaviors. The high-fat diet (HFD) showing elevation of blood glucose levels and body weight caused thermal, mechanical hyperalgesia, hypersensitivity to 2000 or 250 Hz electrical-stimulation and hyposensitivity to 5 Hz stimulation to the paw in wild-type (WT) mice. These HFD-induced abnormal pain behaviors and body weight increase, but not elevated glucose levels were abolished in LPA1-/- and LPA3-/- mice. Repeated daily intrathecal (i.t.) treatments with LPA1/3 antagonist AM966 reversed these abnormal pain behaviors. Similar abnormal pain behaviors and their blockade by daily AM966 (i.t.) or twice daily Ki16425, another LPA1/3 antagonist was also observed in db/db mice which show high glucose levels and body weight. Furthermore, streptozotocin-induced similar abnormal pain behaviors, but not elevated glucose levels or body weight loss were abolished in LPA1-/- and LPA3-/- mice. These results suggest that LPA1 and LPA3 play key roles in the development of both type I and type II diabetic neuropathic pain.