TNF-α exacerbates postoperative plantar pain by regulating the expression of Nav1.8.

Overview

Authors: Zilu Shang^1,2, Yu Li³, Yun Zhang³, Yajuan Gong¹

The First Hospital of Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, China
College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Hebei Medical-University, China
Department of Clinical-Laboratory, Shaanxi Provincial-People’s Hospital, Xi’an. Shaanxi, China

Institutions: Hebei Medical University (China); Anhui University of Science and Technology (China); Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital (China)

Journal: PloS one, volume 21, issue 7, article e0351249

Dates: received 19 January 2026; accepted 25 May 2026; published online 17 July 2026

Type: Research article · Language: English

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0351249 · PMID 42467604 · PMCID PMC13379010 · OpenAlex W7169555750

Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)

Status: data only

Categories: rat (organism), pain (population), cellular / molecular (subfield)

Methods: Statistics

MeSH: NAV1.8 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel*, Postoperative Pain*, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha*, Animals, Ganglia, Spinal, Gene Expression Regulation, Male, Neurons, NF-kappa B, Rats, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Signal Transduction (* major topic)

Topic: Pain Mechanisms and Treatments (Physiology, Medicine), according to OpenAlex

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 29 references in the paper

Abstract

Postoperative pain (POP) is one of the most common complications of surgical procedures. Using a rat plantar incision model, we investigated the interactions between tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), and the voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.8, to uncover the neural basis of POP. Our research demonstrates that, within the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), TNF-α enhances pain behaviors by driving NF-κB–dependent overexpression of Nav1.8 in neurons, further elucidating the molecular basis of POP. This study identifies the TNF-α/NF-κB/Nav1.8 axis as a critical pathway for therapeutic intervention, thereby establishing a theoretical foundation for targeting cytokine signaling to alleviate POP.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

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Data

Datasets cited

geo:GSE267799, at NCBI GEO; found in the text, “Bioinformatics analysis”

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting information files.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 4 authors, 12 MeSH terms, 29 references.

Cite

This paper

Shang, Z., Li, Y., Zhang, Y., & Gong, Y. (2026). TNF-α exacerbates postoperative plantar pain by regulating the expression of Nav1.8. PloS one, 21(7), e0351249. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0351249

BibTeX

@article{shang2026tnf, author = {Shang, Zilu and Li, Yu and Zhang, Yun and Gong, Yajuan}, title = {{TNF-α exacerbates postoperative plantar pain by regulating the expression of Nav1.8}}, journal = {PloS one}, year = {2026}, month = jul, volume = {21}, number = {7}, pages = {e0351249}, publisher = {PLOS}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0351249}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0351249}, pmid = {42467604}, pmcid = {PMC13379010} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Shang, Zilu AU - Li, Yu AU - Zhang, Yun AU - Gong, Yajuan TI - TNF-α exacerbates postoperative plantar pain by regulating the expression of Nav1.8 T2 - PloS one J2 - PLoS One PY - 2026 DA - 2026/07/17 VL - 21 IS - 7 SP - e0351249 SN - 1932-6203 PB - PLOS DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0351249 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0351249 LA - en ER -

CSL-JSON

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