• Brandon J Rea, Abigail Davison, Martin-Junior Ketcha, Kylie J Smith, Aaron M Fairbanks, Anne-Sophie Wattiez, Pieter Poolman, Randy H Kardon, Andrew F Russo, and Levi P Sowers.
• Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States.
• Pain. 2022 Aug 1; 163 (8): 151115191511-1519.

AbstractWe developed an automated squint assay using both black C57BL/6J and white CD1 mice to measure the interpalpebral fissure area between the upper and lower eyelids as an objective quantification of pain. The automated software detected a squint response to the commonly used nociceptive stimulus formalin in C57BL/6J mice. After this validation, we used the automated assay to detect a dose-dependent squint response to a migraine trigger, the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide, including a response in female mice at a dose below detection by the manual grimace scale. Finally, we found that the calcitonin gene-related peptide amylin induced squinting behavior in female mice, but not males. These data demonstrate that an automated squint assay can be used as an objective, real-time, continuous-scale measure of pain that provides higher precision and real-time analysis compared with manual grimace assessments.Copyright © 2021 International Association for the Study of Pain.

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