SCN11A variants may influence postoperative pain sensitivity after gynecological surgery in Chinese Han female patients.

Nav1.9, encoded by sodium voltage-gated channel alpha subunit 11 (SCN11A), is one of the main sodium channels involved in pain transmission. Dysfunction of Nav1.9 alters pain sensitivity, resulting in insensitivity to pain or familial episodic pain. Our purpose was to explore the effects of SCN11A single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on postoperative pain sensitivity in Chinese Han female patients after gynecological surgery.Here, we combined the methods of tag SNPs and candidate SNPs. The associations between eleven SCN11A SNPs and basic pain sensitivity in female healthy volunteers were analyzed using the Plink software. The SNPs associated with basic pain sensitivity were termed positive SCN11A SNPs. The effect of these positive SNPs on postoperative pain sensitivity was explored in patients undergoing elective gynecological laparoscopic surgery and receiving postoperative patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). We assessed pain intensity using the numeric pain rating scale (NRS) and recorded PCA consumption.Our results suggested that 5 SNPs (rs33985936, rs13080116, rs11720988, rs11709492, and rs11720013) in 11 tag and candidate SNPs were associated with basic pain sensitivity (P < .05). No evident association was found between the 5 positive SNPs and NRS (P > .05). However, among these positive SNPs, the minor alleles of rs33985936 and rs13080116 were significantly associated with increased PCA consumption (P < .01).To our knowledge, this is the first study to report that SCN11A SNPs affect postoperative pain sensitivity in Chinese Han women after gynecological surgery. The SNP rs33985936 and rs13080116 may serve as novel predictors for postoperative pain.

NaV 1.8, but not NaV 1.9, is upregulated in the inflamed dental pulp tissue of human primary teeth.

AIM: To investigate alterations in Na(V) 1.8 and Na(V) 1.9 expression within inflamed dental pulp tissue of human primary teeth. METHODOLOGY: Dental pulp tissue obtained from both normal and inflamed pulps in primary teeth as well as pulps from normal and inflamed permanent teeth was used. The quantity of Na(V) 1.8 and Na(V) 1.9 expression in the dental pulp tissue was investigated using Western blot analysis. General neuron marker (PGP9.5) was used to quantify for neural density, and an increase in metalloproteinase-9 was used to indicate pulpal inflammation in inflamed teeth. Statistically significant differences for each determined parameter between normal and inflamed teeth of both primary and permanent teeth were tested using the Mann-Whitney rank sum test. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in neural density of normal and inflamed dental pulp tissue, although degrees of inflammation were increased in the inflamed dental pulp of both permanent and primary teeth (P < 0.05). Na(V) 1.8 and Na(V) 1.9 expression in inflamed pulps of permanent teeth increased significantly compared with normal permanent teeth (P < 0.05). However, only Na(V) 1.8 expression was increased significantly in the inflamed dental pulp of primary teeth (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Na(V) 1.8 alone may be the therapeutic target for treatment of painful pulpitis in primary teeth.