Sex differences in cholinergic analgesia II: differing mechanisms in two models of allodynia.
BACKGROUND
Cholinergic agents reduce allodynia after nerve injury in animals and may be useful in the treatment of neuropathic pain. Intrathecally administered neostigmine and neuronal nicotinic agonists are more potent in female than in male rats against acute thermal noxious stimuli. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is also a sex difference in the antiallodynic effects of intrathecal cholinomimetic agents in two models of allodynia and to test their pharmacologic mechanisms.


METHODS
Male and female rats with indwelling intrathecal catheters received injections of neostigmine, bethanechol (muscarinic agonist), RJR-2403 (neuronal nicotinic agonist) alone or with atropine (muscarinic antagonist), mecamylamine (nicotinic antagonist), phentolamine (alpha-adrenergic antagonist), or saline control. The effect of these agents was determined on mechanical allodynia produced by either intraplantar injection of capsaicin or ligation of spinal nerves.


RESULTS
Neostigmine and RJR-2403 but not bethanechol were more potent in female than in male rats in reducing allodynia after nerve injury, and antagonist studies were also consistent with a nicotinic component to explain this sex difference. Phentolamine did not reverse neostigmine's effect. In contrast, for capsaicin-induced allodynia, neostigmine plus mecamylamine but not neostigmine or RJR-2403 was more potent in female than in male rats.


CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate a sex difference of intrathecal neostigmine after nerve injury-induced allodynia similar to that observed in normal animals that received acute noxious thermal stimulation. However, this sex difference is not universal to all pain models because it was not present after intradermal capsaicin injection, nor is its interaction with spinal noradrenergic mechanisms consistent in all models.
Lavand'homme
P M
PM
Department of Anesthesiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1009, USA.
Eisenach
J C
JC
D000700:Analgesics / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002211:Capsaicin / Q000633:toxicity; D018678:Cholinergic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D007278:Injections, Spinal; D008026:Ligation; D008297:Male; D018721:Muscarinic Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D009388:Neostigmine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D018733:Nicotinic Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D010146:Pain / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012737:Sex Factors; D013127:Spinal Nerves / Q000502:physiology
D000700:Analgesics; D018678:Cholinergic Agents; D018721:Muscarinic Agonists; D018727:Muscarinic Antagonists; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D018733:Nicotinic Antagonists; D009388:Neostigmine; D002211:Capsaicin