The present studies investigated behavioral and neurochemical aspects of the noradrenergic and serotonergic nervous systems in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. We previously reported that intrathecal (I.t.) injection of norepinephrine significantly potentiated antinociception in diabetic mice compared to that in non-diabetic mice, and that antinociception due to norepinephrine injection was completely abolished by pretreatment with yohimbine, an α_2-adrenoceptor antagonist. The present studies demonstrated that I.t. injection of clonidine also showed more potent antinociceptive activity in diabetic mice than in non-diabetic mice, but that I.t. methoxamine injection did not affect diabetic or non-diabetic mice. The antinociceptive potency due to I.t. injection of 5-HT was significantly lower in diabetic than in non-diabetic mice. In a neurochemical study, we found that the density of [^3H]-rauwolscine binding sites in spinal α_2-adrenoceptors was significantly higher in diabetic than in non-diabetic mice, but that the binding affinity was unchanged. Spinal norepinephrine turnover was determined by measuring the decline in tissue norepinephrine concentration at 3 h after injection of the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor α-methyl-p-tyrosine. The spinal norepinephrine concentration decreased to 43.7% from the baseline in non-diabetic mice, while it was 21.0% in diabetic mice. These results suggest that, based on the decrease of norepinephrine release in the spinal cord, up-regulation of spinal α_2-adrenoceptors caused the increase of antinociception due to I.t. injection of an α_2-adrenoceptor agonist in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice, and it seemed that the stimulation of α_2-adrenoceptors potentiated the antinociceptive effect. Thus, the spinal noradrenergic systems play an important moderating role in diabetes-induced neuropathic pain.
