Figure 4From: Bilateral downregulation of Nav1.8 in dorsal root ganglia of rats with bone cancer pain induced by inoculation with Walker 256 breast tumor cells Cell area and relative Nav1.8 immunofluorescence intensity. Histograms for neurons in tumor-injected (A) ipsilateral (n = 521), (B) contralateral (n = 449) and (C) normal DRG (n = 549). Grey and black denote neurons with Nav1.8 immunofluorescence relative intensity >20% and >50%, respectively. Neurons are divided into small (cross-sectional area <400 μm2, diameter 23 μm), medium (400-800 μm2, diameter 23-32 μm) and large (>800 μm2, diameter 32 μm). (D) Semiquantitative analysis of the percentage of Nav1.8 immunofluorescent-positive (>20% relative intensity) cells in small, medium and large DRG neurons. The percentage of positive small neurons is significantly (P < 0.01) lower in tumor-injected bilateral DRG compared to the normal group. No differences are evident for medium and large neurons. *P < 0.01 (χ 2 test) compared to normal rats.Back to article page