ArticlePain2020
Magnetic resonance imaging of neuroinflammation in chronic pain: a role for astrogliosis?
Article in Pain, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural and Functional Neuroimaging Findings in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Sexually Dimorphic Neuroimmune Pathways in Chronic Pain: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms.Biomolecules · 2026Pooled it
- Immediate systemic neuroimmune responses following spinal mobilisation and manipulation in people with non-specific neck pain: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Greater Somatosensory Afference With Acupuncture Increases Primary Somatosensory Connectivity and Alleviates Fibromyalgia Pain via Insular γ-Aminobutyric Acid: A Randomized Neuroimaging Trial.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2021Trial
- Neuroimaging insights from Wistar-Kyoto rats under chronic mild stress: morphological and metabolic brain correlates of treatment-resistant depression.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Melatonin Mitigates Central Sensitization and Nociplastic Pain in Spinal Cord and Dorsal Root Ganglia of FM Rat Model: Modulation of SIRT1/PGC-1α/MAPK/NF-κB Signaling.Journal of neuroimmune pharmacology : the official journal of the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging-Guided Insights into the Molecular and Network Mechanisms of Chronic Pain and Neuromodulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Microglial CX3CR1 signaling mediates stress-induced pain behavior in mice.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation in psychiatric disorders: a review.Psychoradiology · 2026Review
- Brain metabolic alterations in individuals with chronic non-specific neck pain assessed using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- How does chronic psychosocial distress induce pain? Focus on neuroinflammation and neuroplasticity changes.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Electroacupuncture Reduces Fibromyalgia Pain via Neuronal/Microglial Inactivation and Toll-like Receptor 4 in the Mouse Brain: Precise Interpretation of Chemogenetics.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Abnormal functional neurocircuitry underpinning emotional processing in fibromyalgia.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2024Article
- Alisol A Exerts Neuroprotective Effects Against HFD-Induced Pathological Brain Aging via the SIRT3-NF-κB/MAPK Pathway.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Article
- Chronic neuropathic pain components in whiplash-associated disorders correlate with metabolite concentrations in the anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: a consensus-driven MRS re-examination.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Evaluation of microglia activation related markers following a clinical course of TBS: A non-human primate study.PloS one · 2024Article
- Persistent neuroinflammation of the right insular cortex in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: a proton MRS study.Clinical rheumatology · 2023Article
- Change in medial frontal cerebral metabolite concentrations following bariatric surgery.NMR in biomedicine · 2023Article
- Pain Biomarkers in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Current Understanding and Future Directions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Alcohol Craving and Severity are Associated with Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Choline Levels in Individuals with an Alcohol Use Disorder.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Noninvasive measures of neuroinflammatory processes in humans could substantially aid diagnosis and therapeutic development for many disorders, including chronic pain. Several proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) metabolites have been linked with glial activity (ie, choline and myo-inositol) and found to be altered in chronic pain patients, but their role in the neuroinflammatory cascade is not well known. Our multimodal study evaluated resting functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity and H-MRS metabolite concentration in insula cortex in 43 patients suffering from fibromyalgia, a chronic centralized pain disorder previously demonstrated to include a neuroinflammatory component, and 16 healthy controls. Patients demonstrated elevated choline (but not myo-inositol) in anterior insula (aIns) (P = 0.03), with greater choline levels linked with worse pain interference (r = 0.41, P = 0.01). In addition, reduced resting functional connectivity between aIns and putamen was associated with both pain interference (whole brain analysis, pcorrected < 0.01) and elevated aIns choline (r = -0.37, P = 0.03). In fact, aIns/putamen connectivity statistically mediated the link between aIns choline and pain interference (P < 0.01), highlighting the pathway by which neuroinflammation can impact clinical pain dysfunction. To further elucidate the molecular substrates of the effects observed, we investigated how putative neuroinflammatory H-MRS metabolites are linked with ex vivo tissue inflammatory markers in a nonhuman primate model of neuroinflammation. Results demonstrated that cortical choline levels were correlated with glial fibrillary acidic protein, a known marker for astrogliosis (Spearman r = 0.49, P = 0.03). Choline, a putative neuroinflammatory H-MRS-assessed metabolite elevated in fibromyalgia and associated with pain interference, may be linked with astrogliosis in these patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.