Fig. 1

CXCR4 modulates neuropathic pain. a–c CXCR4 immunofluorescent co-staining with NeuN (a neuron marker) (a, a′), GFAP (an astrocyte marker) (b, b′) or IBA1 (a microglial marker) (c, c′) in the lumbar segment of the spinal cord at 7 days after pSNL surgery. *p < 0.05, versus Sham group by two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test; n = 5 per group. Original magnification × 200 for all the confocal images. Scale bar, 50 μm. d, e The effect of intrathecal injection of CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100 on the pSNL-induced thermal hyperalgesia (PWL) (d) and mechanical allodynia (PWT) (e) on day 7 after pSNL. Behavior was tested at 0.5, 1, and 2 h after AMD3100 injection. One-way ANOVA (behavior change versus treatment groups) followed by post hoc Tukey test. PWL F (6, 48) = 5.624; PWT F (6, 48) = 4.071, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 versus Sham group; ^#p < 0.05 versus pSNL+Sal group. f, g Daily intrathecal injections of Lenti-CXCR4 for 3 consecutive days in naïve mice induced thermal hyperalgesia (f) and mechanical allodynia (g). Behavior was tested 48 h after lentivirus injection in naïve mice. One-way ANOVA (behavior change versus treatment groups) followed by post hoc Tukey test. PWL F (4, 36) = 57.264; PWT F (4, 36) = 3.194, *p < 0.05, versus vector group. Data are presented as mean ± SEM; n = 5 per group