Effects of lowering barometric pressure on guarding behavior, heart rate and blood pressure in a rat model of neuropathic pain.
We investigated whether lowering barometric pressure by 20 mmHg (LP) aggravates the guarding behavior suggestive of spontaneous pain following sciatic nerve chronic constriction injury (CCI) in rats. Systemic blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) of unrestrained rats were recorded telemetrically during LP both before and after the CCI surgery. CCI rats showed guarding posture in normopressure conditions, and LP increased the cumulative time of this behavior. Baseline BP but not HR was increased following CCI. LP increased BP and HR of the rats only before the CCI surgery. Animals after CCI surgery showed variable (BP, HR) and transient (HR) responses to LP. These results indicate that (1) LP aggravated spontaneous pain and increased BP and HR in the CCI rats, and (2) CCI surgery influenced BP and HR of rats.
Sato
J
J
Department of Neural Regulation, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan. jun@riem.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Takanari
K
K
Omura
S
S
Mizumura
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009409:Nerve Crush / Q000009:adverse effects; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology