Grant supports Aarhus-based research into chronic nerve pain
In a laboratory at Aarhus University, researchers are busy studying the importance of the nervous system’s support cells in relation to the development of chronic nerve pain. Associate Professor Christian Vægter is heading the research and he has just received DKK five million from the Lundbeck Foundation to continue the study.
Chronic pain affects more than 300,000 people in Denmark, with widely varying symptoms from person to person.
With the Lundbeck Foundation’s Ascending Investigator Grant of DKK five million, Christian Vægter and his research colleagues can continue looking into how the support cells of the nervous system – also called glial cells – are involved in the development of chronic pain in the peripheral nervous system, i.e. the nerves that go from the brain and spinal cord and out to the rest of the body.
“We study how the glial cells ‘talk to’ the healthy nerve cells and how their mutual balance is disrupted when the nerves are damaged. Each nerve cell is covered by a dozen so-called satellite glial cells and hundreds or even thousands of another type of cell called Schwann cells,” explains Christian Vægter.
This means that the glial cells are perfectly positioned in terms of influencing the functioning of the nerve cells.
“This is because they’re glued to the nerve cell and completely encapsulate it, ‘nurse’ it and ensure that it functions. We need to find out how we can manipulate the glial cells and help the nerve cells to behave normally again,” he says.
Contact
Associate Professor Christian Vægter
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Mobile: (+45) 6130 3642
Email: cv@biomed.au.dk