Research & Publications

The laboratory is currently undertaking the following research projects:

1. Development of inhibitory processes in spinal cord pain pathways.

2. Role of sensory activity in shaping postnatal pain processing

3. Cortical pain processing in human infants

4. Microglial neuronal interactions in infant and adult neuropathic pain (in collaboration with Dr Simon Beggs and Dr Mike Salter from University of Toronto)

5. Brainstem spinal cord interactions in developing pain pathways

6. The long term neurobiological consequences of early pain and analgesia on the developing central nervous system

Recent Publications

(some of these are available as .pdf files to members of University College Londonon  http://www.anat.ucl.ac.uk/research/fitzgerald)

 New reviews and chapters coming soon...

• FITZGERALD M (2005) The development of nociceptive circuits.  Nature Neuroscience Reviews (in press)
• FITZGERALD M, MACDERMOTT A (2005) The development of pain systems.  In The Neurobiology of Pain eds Hunt SB & Koltzenburg M. Oxford University press.(in press)
• BACCEI M, FITZGERALD M (2005) Development of Pain Pathways and Mechanisms. In the Textbook of Pain, 5th Edition Eds. McMahon SB & Koltzenburg M. Churchill Livingstone.(in press

Recently published reviews

• NANDI R, FITZGERALD M (2005) Opioid analgesia in the newborn. Eur J Pain. 9:105-8.
• PATTINSON D, FITZGERALD M. (2004) The neurobiology of infant pain: Development of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission in the spinal dorsal horn. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 29: 36-44.
• FITZGERALD M (2004) Painful beginnings. Pain. 110:508-9
• FITZGERALD M , WALKER S (2003) The role of activity in developing pain pathways. Proceedings of the 10th World Congress on Pain.  Progress in Pain research and Management, vol.24. Ed JO Dostrovsky, DB Carr & M Koltzenburg. IASP Press, Seattle.

Recent research papers

• JACKMAN, A AND FITZGERALD, M  (2000) The development of peripheral hindlimb and central spinal cord innervation by subpopulations of dorsal root ganglion cells in the embryonic rat, J.Comp.Neurol. 418:281-98.
• ANDREWS K A & FITZGERALD M (2000). Flexion reflex responses in biceps femoris and tibialis anterior in human neonates.  Early Human Dev. 57(2): 105-110.
• TORSNEY C, MEREDITH-MIDDLETON J & FITZGERALD M (2000) Neonatal capsaicin treatment prevents the normal postnatal withdrawal of A fibres from lamina II without affecting Fos responses to innocuous peripheral stimulation.  Dev Brain Res. 2000 121:55-65.
• BELAND, B & FITZGERALD, M (2001) Influence of peripheral inflammation on the postnatal maturation of primary sensory neuron phenotype in rats J. Pain 2: 36-45.
• ALVARES, D., TORSNEY, C., BELAND, B, REYNOLDS, M. & FITZGERALD, M. (2001) Modelling the prolonged effects of neonatal pain. Progress in Brain Research 129:365-73
• BELAND, B & FITZGERALD, M (2001) Mu- and delta opioid receptors are downregulated in large primary sensory neurons during postnatal development in rats. Pain 90: 143-150.
• HOWARD, R, HATCH, D & COLE, T FITZGERALD, M (2001) Reversal of inflammatory hypersensitivity by epidural local anaesthetic in the rat is developmentally regulated. Anesthesiology 95:421-7.
• BENN S, COSTIGAN M, TATE S, FITZGERALD M, WOOLF CJ. (2001) Developmental expression of the TTX-Resistant voltage-gated sodium channels Nav1.8 (SNS) and Nav1.9 (SNS2) in primary sensory neurons. J. Neurosci. 21: 6077-6085.
• BEGGS, S, TORSNEY,C, DREW, L, FITZGERALD M. (2002) The postnatal reorganisation of primary afferent input and dorsal horn cell receptive fields in the rat spinal cord is an activity-dependent process Eur J Neurosci. 16:1249-1258.
• TORSNEY, C & FITZGERALD M (2002) Age-dependent effects of peripheral inflammation upon the electrophysiological properties of neonatal rat dorsal horn neurons: development of hyperalgesia and allodynia. J Neurophysiol. 87:1311-7.
• ANDREWS K, FITZGERALD M. (2002) Wound sensitivity as a measure of analgesic effects following surgery in human neonates and infants. Pain 99:185-192
• ANDREWS, KA, DESAI D, DHILLON HK, WILCOX DT, FITZGERALD, M.(2002) Abdominal sensitivity in the first year of life: comparison of infants with and without prenatally-diagnosed unilateral hydronephrosis Pain 100:35-46
• FITZGERALD M, HOWARD R (2003) The neurobiological basis of pediatric pain. In Pain in Children and Adolescents, 2nd Edition, Eds. Schechter, N.Berde, C. & Yaster, M. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins pp 19-42.
• BACCEI ML, BARDONI R and FITZGERALD, M (2003) Development of nociceptive synaptic inputs to the neonatal dorsal horn: glutamate release by capsaicin and menthol. J Physiol. 549:231-42.
• WALKER S, MEREDITH-MIDDLETON J, COOKE-YARBOROUGH C, FITZGERALD M (2003) Neonatal inflammation and primary afferent terminal plasticity in the rat dorsal horn. Pain. 105:185-95.
• TORSNEY C, FITZGERALD, M (2003) Spinal dorsal horn cell receptive field size is increased in adult rats following neonatal hindpaw skin injury. J Physiol. 550:255-61
• WILLIAMS G., HOWARD, RF FITZGERALD M., DICKENSON A (2004) Codeine Analgesia is both genetically and developmentally regulated in the rat. Anaesthesiology 100:92-7.
• BACCEI M, FITZGERALD, M (2004) The development of GABAergic and glycinergic transmission in the neonatal rat dorsal horn J Neurosci. 24:4749-57.
• NANDI R, BEACHAM D, MIDDLETON J, KOLTZENBURG M, HOWARD RF, FITZGERALD M. (2004) The functional expression of mu opioid receptors on sensory neurons is developmentally regulated; morphine analgesia is less selective in the neonate. Pain. 2004 Sep;111(1-2):38-50
• WALKER SM, HOWARD R. KEAY KA, FITZGERALD M (2005) Developmental age influences the effect of epidural dexmedetomidine on inflammatory hyperalgesia in the rat pup. Anaesthesiology (in press).
• HOWARD R, WALKER SM, MOTA M, FITZGERALD M (2005) The ontogeny of neuropathic pain: postnatal onset of mechanical allodynia in rat spared nerve injury (SNI) and chronic constriction injury (CCI) models.  Pain (in press)