The impact of CREB and its phosphorylation at Ser142 on inflammatory nociception

Peripheral noxious stimulation leads to phosphorylation and thereby activation of the transcription factor CREB in the spinal cord. CREB phosphorylation occurs mainly at serine 133, but the phosphorylation site at serine 142 may also be important. We investigated the impact of spinal CREB protein levels and phosphorylation at Ser142 on the nociceptive behaviour in rat and mouse models of inflammatory nociception. Downregulation of total CREB protein in the rat spinal cord by antisense-oligonucleotides resulted in antinociceptive effects. After peripheral noxious stimulation CREB was phosphorylated in the spinal cord at serine 133 and 142 indicating a potential role of both residues in nociceptive processing. However, Ser142 mutant mice developed equal behavioural correlates of hyperalgesia as wild-type mice in different inflammatory models. Thus, our data confirm that CREB is essential for spinal nociceptive processing. However, prevention of phosphorylation only at serine 142 is not sufficient to modulate the nociceptive response.