There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
<p class="first" id="d8044451e59">We attempted to develop an experimental animal model
for peripheral neuropathic pain.
Under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, both the L5 and L6 spinal nerves (group 1)
or the L5 spinal nerve alone (group 2) of one side of the rat were tightly ligated.
For comparison, a parallel study was conducted with another group of rats (group 3)
which received a partial tight sciatic nerve ligation, a paradigm developed previously
as a neuropathy model. Withdrawal latencies to application of radiant heat to the
foot were tested for the next 16 weeks in all 3 groups. Sensitivity of the hind paw
to mechanical stimulation was tested with von Frey filaments. The general behavior
of each rat was noted during the entire test period. Results suggested that the surgical
procedure in all 3 groups produced a long-lasting hyperalgesia to noxious heat (at
least 5 weeks) and mechanical allodynia (at least 10 weeks) of the affected foot.
In addition, there were behavioral signs of the presence of spontaneous pain in the
affected foot. Therefore, we believe we have developed an experimental animal model
for peripheral neuropathy using tight ligations of spinal nerves. The model manifests
the symptoms of human patients with causalgia and is compatible with a previously
developed neuropathy model. The present model has two unique features. First, the
surgical procedure is stereotyped. Second, the levels of injured and intact spinal
segments are completely separated, allowing independent experimental manipulations
of the injured and intact spinal segments in future experiments to answer questions
regarding mechanisms underlying causalgia.
</p>