Corneal UVB-Induced Changes in Cytokine Protein Content in Satellite Cells in the Trigeminal Ganglion and in Cells in the "Trigeminal Root" Entry Zone

Shimeld et al. (1999) [Shimeld et al., 1999, p. 1769: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9971753)] found that the exposure of the corneas of mock-inoculated mice (those that had not been infected with HSV-1, meaning that they were just "mice") increased the percentages or fractions of satellite cells, in the trigeminal ganglia, that were immunoreactive for interleukin-6 and TNF-alpha. This is the closest I've seen to evidence that the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in astrocytes or microglia (in the dorsal root entry zone (DRE), or trigeminal root entry zone, and I'm actually not sure if that's regarded as being part of the CNS or the PNS--I think it's technically in the CNS, but I may be wrong about that), potentially (cells that might fit that description of cells with a "dendritic morphology"), might be increased in response to UVB exposure (of the corneas, in this case). Those authors also found some crude time-dependency of the changes in the fraction of IL-6+ cells in the trigeminal ganglion, I think. It seems like not much of a thing--not very surprising (the pro-inflammatory changes in the trigeminal root entry zone), but when one looks at the polysynaptic effects of cutaneous UVB exposure, I think those scientists' (all the UVB researchers) research is a big discovery. I've certainly done a whole lot of nothing to contribute to it, that's for sure. I don't really feel like it's "mine to discuss," and I definitely don't think I deserve any credit for anything, for writing some silly paper. There's absolutely no credit for me to claim, but I think it's relevant to some topics in neurobiology. Maybe there's some way to regulate cerebral blood flow, using something like that transcutaneous stimulation type of thing, in people, under some circumstances. I don't know. It sounds difficult to control, but I guess one won't really know anything until those mechanisms have been researched.