Results of a Korean study announced last year that found changes in unmyelinated nerve cells in Fibro patients have now been published in the journal Clinical Rheumatology. The article ‘Characteristic electron microscopic findings in the skin of patients with fibromyalgia–preliminary study’ is by researchers at Dongguk University College of Medicine in South Korea.
The aim of the blinded study was to determine whether there are any abnormal electron microscopic (EM) findings in the skin of fibromyalgia syndrome (Fibro) patients, which might contribute to or be due to the increased pain sensitivity seen with the condition.
During the study, skin biopsy samples were obtained from 13 Fibro patients and 5 control subjects. Five skin biopsies from healthy controls showed relatively even distribution of variegated sized unmyelinated axons sheathed well by complicatedly folded Schwann cell membranes. In tissues from 9 of the 13 Fibro patients, unmyelinated Schwann cells were noted to be ballooned, whereas this finding was not noted in any controls. Schwann cells are a kind of cell that mainly provide myelin insulation to axons (nerve fibres) in the peripheral nervous system. According to wikipedia “the nervous system relies on this myelin sheath for insulation and as a method of decreasing membrane capacitance in the axon, thus allowing for [nerve] conduction to occur. Non-myelinating Schwann cells are involved in maintenance of axons and are crucial for neuronal survival. “
Axons in most of the Fibro patients trended towards being localized near the edge of the unmyelinated Schwann cell sheaths. This peripheral localization of axons in the unmyelinated Schwann cell sheaths had a strong relationship with the ballooning of the Schwann cells, simplified folding of the Schwann cell sheaths and smaller axons. Myelinated nerve fibers were unremarkable.
Unmyelinated nerve fibres in the peripheral nerves (C fibres) are bundled together by unmyelinating Schwann cells to form Remak bundles of C fiber axons. The free nerve ending of C fibres are pain-sensing nociceptors that respond to all kinds of physiological changes in the body, including thermal, mechanical, and chemical stimuli. C fibers respond to a stronger intensity of stimulus that the nervers responsible for the sharp first pains and are responsible for the slow, dull, longer-lasting, second pain. C fibers are involved in the process of central sensitisation that can occur after nerve damage causes neuropathic pain.
The researchers concluded that:
“The EM findings seen in the skin of [Fibro] patients show unusual patterns of unmyelinated nerve fibers as well as associated Schwann cells. If these findings are replicated in a larger study, these abnormalities may contribute to, or be due to, the lower pain threshold seen in [Fibro] patients.”
March 27, 2008 at 6:37 pm
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cheers
March 27, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I just copy the urls myself!