Simultaneous FPI and TMA measurements of the lower thermospheric wind in the vicinity of the poleward expanding aurora after substorm onset

Abstract Lower thermospheric wind fluctuations in the vicinity of an auroral arc immediately before and after a substorm onset were examined by analyzing data from a ground‐based green line Fabry‐Perot interferometer (FPI; optical wavelength of 557.7 nm) at Tromsø, Norway, and in situ measurements from a trimethyl aluminum (TMA) trail released from a sounding rocket launched during the Dynamics and Energetics of the Lower Thermosphere in Aurora 2 (DELTA‐2) campaign on 26 January 2009. Soon after the rocket launch but before disappearance of the TMA trail, a substorm onset occurred. The DELTA‐2 TMA experiment appears to be the first case in which the substorm onset occurred during the TMA wind measurement. It is known that energy dissipation induced by the ionospheric closure current is compacted at the poleward side of the discrete arc in the ionospheric morning cell. Both FPI and TMA measurements were made at the poleward side, but the FPI measured winds nearer to the poleward edge of the arc than the TMA by 110–130 km. The FPI winds at distance of 53–74 km relative to the arc edge showed clear fluctuations immediately after the substorm onset, but there was no obvious similar fluctuation in the TMA‐measured winds. The difference in the response at the two locations suggests that energy dissipation sufficient to be detected as the FPI/TMA wind perturbations was confined to the area from the poleward edge of the arc to a relative distance shorter than 163–203 km but longer than 53–74 km in this event

Nonviral Retrograde Gene Transfer of Human Hepatocyte Growth Factor Improves Neuropathic Pain-related Phenomena in Rats

Peripheral nerve injury occasionally causes chronic neuropathic pain with hyperalgesia and allodynia. However, its treatment is difficult. Here, we used a chronic constriction injury (CCI) model in rats to investigate the effects on experimental neuropathic pain of the human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene delivered into the nervous system by retrograde axonal transport following its repeated intramuscular transfer, using liposomes containing the hemagglutinating virus of Japan (HVJ). CCI (control) rats exhibited marked mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia, and decreased blood flow in sciatic nerve and hind paw. All these changes were significantly reversed by HGF gene transfer. In the sciatic nerve in HGF-treated rats, the size-frequency distributions for myelinated and unmyelinated axons each showed a rightward shift, the number of myelinated axons >5 µm in diameter was significantly increased, and the mean diameter of unmyelinated axons was significantly increased (versus CCI rats). Levels of P2X3, P2X4, and P2Y1 receptor mRNAs, and of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) mRNAs, were elevated in the ipsilateral dorsal root ganglia and/or sciatic nerve by CCI, and these levels were decreased by HGF gene transfer. These results may point toward a potential new treatment strategy for chronic neuropathic pain in this model