Dr. Banik publishes study on the relationship between aging and epidermal innervation
Ratan Banik, MD, PhD, University of Minnesota Medical School Department of Anesthesiology co-authored “Nonlinear Inverted-U Shaped Relationship Between Aging and Epidermal Innervation in the Rat Plantar Hind Paw: A Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy Study” in The Journal of Pain.
The study sought to identify a relationship between pain and aging in regards to afferents, questioning whether the density of primary afferent endings changed within the skin of aged animals.
“The prevalence of persistent pain problems including surgical procedures, although higher in elderly groups, has been observed to present with unusually painless manifestations. The paper shows that the density of pain-sensing neurons in skin in senescent animals are significantly less. Such defect in pain mechanisms may in part contribute to a decreased occurrence of pain," said Dr. Banik.
