The Mechanism Underlying Trigeminal Neuralgia
摘要
In individuals with a crowded cerebellopontine angle, the proximity between the trigeminal nerve root and adjacent blood vessels tends to escalate with age, eventually leading to neurovascular conflict. The nerve undergoes demyelination due to friction between interfaces caused by pulsations. Upon reaching a certain pathological stage, the activation of inflammatory cytokines triggers signaling pathways that induce the emergence of specific transmembrane proteins from nerve cells, encompassing both voltage-gated and mechanosensitive ion channels. As a consequence of pulsatile compression, the mechanosensitive channel tends to shift the resting potential towards depolarization, thereby eliciting subthreshold membrane potential oscillation. Under this dynamic state, when the impact parameters such as frequency and amplitude fluctuate to a certain level corresponding to the heart beat rate and blood pressure respectively, the membrane potential may attain the requisite threshold for activating voltage-gated sodium channels, thus initiating propagatable action potentials from the axons. When the ectopic impulses are transmitted afferently to the cerebral cortex, a paroxysm of acute pain is perceived.