Highlights
- •We improved surgical procedure to induce trigeminal neuropathic pain in rats.
- •We performed chronic constriction injury on distal infraorbital nerve (dIoN-CCI).
- •The dIoN-CCI model was easy to perform, minimally invasive, and time saving
- •The dIoN-CCI rats exhibited pain behaviors over a prolonged period.
- •This is a more clinically relevant rodent model for trigeminal neuropathic pain.
Abstract
The number of studies on trigeminal nerve injury using animal models remains limited.
A rodent model of trigeminal neuropathic pain was first developed in 1994, in which
chronic constriction injury (CCI) is induced by ligation of the infraorbital nerve
(IoN). This animal model has served as a major tool to study trigeminal neuropathic
pain. Unfortunately, the surgical procedure in this model is complicated and far more
difficult than ligation of peripheral nerves (eg, sciatic nerve). The aim of this
study was to improve on the current surgical procedure of IoN ligation to induce trigeminal
neuropathic pain in rats. We show that the IoN can be readily accessed through a small
facial incision. CCI can be induced by ligation of a segment at the distal IoN (dIoN).
This dIoN-CCI procedure is simple, minimally invasive, and time-saving. Our data show
that the dIoN-CCI procedure consistently induced acute as well as chronic nociceptive
behaviors in rats. Daily gabapentin treatment attenuated mechanical allodynia and
reduced face-grooming episodes in dIoN-CCI rats.
Perspective
The orofacial pain caused by trigeminal nerve damage is severe and perhaps more debilitating
than other types of neuropathic pain. However, studies on trigeminal neuropathic pain
remain limited. This is largely because of the lack of proper animal models because
of the complexity of the existing surgical procedures required to induce trigeminal
nerve injury. Our improved dIoN-CCI model is likely to make it more accessible to
study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuropathic pain caused by trigeminal
nerve damage.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 23, 2017
Accepted:
February 1,
2017
Received in revised form:
January 21,
2017
Received:
December 20,
2016
Footnotes
W.D., Z.Y., and S.S. contributed equally to this work.
S.Z. and J.M. contributed equally to this work.
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01 DE022901 and R01 DE018214 (J.M.), Hangzhou Science and Technology Plan No 20130633B02 and Zhejiang Medical Science and Technology Plan No 2011KYB064 (W.D.), and National Natural Science Foundation of China 81471171 (S.Z.).
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
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© 2017 by the American Pain Society
