Abstract:

Objective  To detect the influence of heating coagulation of the middle meningeal artery on c-fos expression in the trigeminal  caudalis nucleus in migraine rats triggered by nitroglycerin. Methods  Forty-eight female Wistar rats were randomly assigned to four groups, the isotonic saline group (group A), the nitroglycerin group (group B), the operation group (group C), and the sham operation group (group D), with 12 subjects in each group and each group was subdivided into another two equal groups after successfully constructing  the animal model. C-fos expression in the trigeminal caudalis nucleus  was detected by means of  RT-PCR and  Western blot respectively. Results  Injection of 10mg/kg nitroglycerin was able to trigger the animal model of migraine as evidenced by the appearances of a series of symptoms, such as   frequently head scratching, climbing the cage and  red ear. The scores of these behaviors for each group were respectively 2.33±0.74, 39.57±5.44, 37.87±4.68, 15.6±3.30. At the same time,  c-fos expressionsin the trigeminal caudalis nucleu  in group B, group C, or group D was significantly increased  compared with that of group A (P<0.05). More importantly,  c-fos expression in the trigeminal caudalis  nucleus in group D was much lower than that in group B and group C (P<0.05), but there was no statistical difference between group B and group C (P>0.05). Conclusions  Results show that heat coagulation of the middle meningeal artery may attenuate head complaint of rats induced by nitroglycerin,  and it is concluded that the middle meningeal artery plays a primary role in the pathophysiology of the rat migraine model triggered by nitroglycerin and the efficacy may play a part in decreasing c-fos expression and containing activation of neurons in the trigeminal caudalis nucleus .

Key words: Migraine; Middle meningeal artery; Trigeminal  caudalis nucleus; Cfos Genes; Rats,Wistar