Leong, Heather Lenore2012-07-272012-07-272012-05https://hdl.handle.net/11299/129526University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. Major: Neuroscience. Advisor: Martin Wessendorf, PhD. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 131 pages.Nerve injury can trigger chronic neuropathic pain (Devor, 2006). Previous studies have reported neuronal apoptosis in the spinal cord and cerebral cortex following nerve injury (Sugimoto et al., 1990; Whiteside and Munglani, 2001; Scholz et al., 2005; Fuccio et al., 2009). Because the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) is a crucial site for both descending inhibition and facilitation of nociceptive transmission, we examined whether spinal nerve ligation (SNL) induced cell loss in this region.en-USNeuropathicPainRVMNeuroscienceThesis or Dissertation