Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Assessment of Allodynia Relief by Tissue-Protective
Molecules in a Rat Model of Nerve Injury-Induced
Neuropathic Pain
Maarten Swartjes , Marieke Niesters , and Albert Dahan
Abstract
Neuropathic pain following nerve injury is a chronic disease characterized by allodynia and hyperalgesia of
either mechanical or thermal origin. The mechanism underlying this disease is poorly understood leading
to pharmacologic and physiotherapeutic control that is often insufficient. In this chapter, we describe a
method to induce nerve injury in rats to create a robust animal model for studying neuropathic pain.
Additionally we describe a method to follow up on animals in the process of testing treatments for efficacy
in alleviating allodynia by testing for both mechanical and thermal allodynia with reproducible results.
Key words
Neuropathic pain, Allodynia, Spared nerve injury, ARA290, Erythropoietin, Erythro-
poietin derivative
1
Introduction
Neuropathic pain is a chronic disease with a mechanism that is
diverse and not yet completely understood. It is characterized by
allodynia (increased sensitivity to a non-painful stimulus) and hype-
ralgesia (increased sensitivity to a painful stimulus) of either
mechanical (touch or pressure) or thermal (cold or heat) origin (
1
).
These pain states can become invalidating to patients resulting in
reduced social participation and inability to maintain a job (
2
). Up
until now, pharmacological (i.e., treatment with opioids, NSAIDS,
antidepressants) or non-pharmacological treatment (spinal cord
stimulation, physiotherapy) of neuropathic pain with has shown
limited efficacy. The mechanism leading to neuropathic pain
includes central and peripheral sensitization, neuronal plasticity,
and neurogenic inflammation. These elements share intrinsic path-
ways that ultimately lead to altered nociception (
3, 4
). In animal
experiments EPO has shown to cross the blood-brain barrier and
to be neuroprotective (
5, 6
). Additionally it has shown to be able
to alleviate neuropathic pain following nerve injury presumably
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