Articles: hyperalgesia.
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An injury to a peripheral nerve in animals often leads to signs of neuropathic pain including hyperalgesia to heat, cold and mechanical stimuli. The role of injured and intact nerve fibers in mechanical hyperalgesia was evaluated in rats subjected to an L5 spinal nerve ligation-and-cut ('modified SNL lesion'). To assess the contribution of injured afferents, an L5 dorsal rhizotomy was performed immediately before, or 7 days after the modified SNL lesion. ⋯ These results suggest that, after L5 spinal nerve ligation-and-cut, mechanical hyperalgesia develops and persists independent of input from injured afferents. We propose that the Wallerian degeneration that develops after a nerve injury leads to interactions between the degenerating fibers of the injured spinal nerve and the intact fibers of adjacent spinal nerves. This leads to changes in the intact fibers that play a critical role for both initiation and maintenance of mechanical hyperalgesia.
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Musculoskeletal pain is one of the most frequent symptoms for which medical assistance is sought. Yet, the majority of our knowledge regarding pain physiology is based on studies of cutaneous tissue. Comparatively little is known about activation of visceral, joint and perhaps least of all, musculoskeletal nociceptors although clinically-treated pain originates principally in these structures. ⋯ This behavioral dependent measure is also significantly reversed by agents used clinically to treat muscle pain, indomethacin and dexamethasone, as well as the non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist MK801. Finally, evidence that reduction in grip force is in part mediated by small, unmyelinated afferents is provided by the demonstration that neonatal capsaicin treatment significantly reduced carrageenan-evoked behavioral hyperalgesia ( approximately 45% reduction) and reduced muscle content of immunoreactive CGRP ( approximately 60% reduction) relative to control levels. Collectively, these findings provide converging lines of evidence for the validity of this animal model to investigate mechanisms involved in the development of muscle hyperalgesia.
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Opioid receptors in the brain activate descending pain pathways to inhibit the nociceptive response to acute noxious stimuli. The aim of the present study was to clarify the role of supraspinal opioid receptors in modulating the nociceptive response to persistent inflammation in rats. Subcutaneous administration of 50 microl of complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) into the plantar surface of the hindpaw induced a significant decrease in paw withdrawal latency to thermal stimuli (P<0.01) at 24 h post-injection. ⋯ However, deltorphin II and SNC80 were less potent, and in the case of SNC80 less efficacious, in modulating the response to acute thermal nociception in comparison to hyperalgesia associated with persistent inflammation. These results indicate that mu and delta opioid receptors in the brain modulate descending pain pathways to attenuate the nociceptive response to acute thermal stimuli in both normal and inflamed tissues. The heightened response to delta agonists in the hyperalgesia model suggests that delta opioid receptors in the brain are promising targets for the treatment of pain arising from chronic inflammation.
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Spinal cord injuries (SCI) result in a devastating loss of function and chronic central pain syndromes frequently develop in the majority of these patients. The present study uses a rodent spinal hemisection model of SCI in which mechanical and thermal allodynia develops by 24 days after injury. Post-operative paw withdrawal responses to low threshold and high threshold mechanical stimuli compared to pre-operative responses (4.78, 9.96, and 49.9 mN) were increased and were statistically significant (p<0.05) for both forelimbs and hindlimbs indicating the development of mechanical allodynia. ⋯ No significant changes in locomotion scores, and thus no sedation, were demonstrated by the hemisected group for the doses tested. These data support the potential efficacy of competitive excitatory amino acid receptor antagonists in the treatment of chronic central pain, particularly where input from low threshold mechanical afferents trigger the onset of the painful sensation. Furthermore, these data suggest a role for both NMDA and non-NMDA receptors in the development of plastic changes in the spinal cord that provide the underlying mechanisms for central neuropathic pain.
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Neuroscience letters · Mar 2000
Inhibition of adjuvant-induced inflammatory hyperalgesia in rats by local injection of neurotrophin-3.
The induction of nerve growth factor (NGF) in inflammatory tissue has been shown to be involved in hyperalgesia. In the present study, the role of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in the regulation of inflammatory hyperalgesia was analyzed. ⋯ When 1 microg of NT-3 was locally injected at 5 h after CFA injection at the time NT-3 levels decreased, hyperalgesia was reversed transiently but specifically. These results suggest an inhibitory role of NT-3 in the regulation of pain sensitivity.