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Nerve regrowth can be painful

Neuronal fibres have been tracked as they regrow into the skin following nerve injury in mice. The analysis reveals that mis-wiring of pain-sensing fibres generates hypersensitivity to touch in skin associated with the injury.
By
  1. Suna L. Cranfill

    1. Suna L. Cranfill is in the Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.

  2. Wenqin Luo

    1. Wenqin Luo is in the Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.

Pain provides an essential warning of impending tissue damage, protecting us from worse injuries. But when our nervous systems are damaged, this transient warning can turn into a persistent and debilitating pain1. The mechanisms that underlie this neuropathic pain are incompletely understood, leading to inadequate treatment options. Writing in Nature, Gangadharan et al.2 report their ten-month analysis of mice recovering from nerve damage. The authors describe a surprising link between neuropathic pain and reinnervation.

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Nature 606, 32-33 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01243-8

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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