title: BDNF as an effect modifier for gender effects on pain thresholds in healthy subjects.
abstract: BDNF is an important marker of neuronal plasticity. It has also been associated with pain processing. Increased BDNF levels are observed in chronic pain syndromes. In order to understand the role of BDNF associated with other factors such as gender on experimental pain we aimed to determine whether experimental heat or pressure pain threshold is correlated with brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) level, gender and age. Heat pain threshold and pressure pain threshold were measured in 49 healthy volunteers (27 females). The multivariate linear regression models (on heat and pressure pain thresholds) revealed a significant effect of gender (p=0.001 for both models), serum BDNF (p<0.004 for both models) and interaction between BDNF and gender (<0.001 for both models). In fact, when adjusting for BDNF levels and age, heat and pressure pain thresholds were significantly reduced in women as compared to men (p<0.001 for both models). These effects were not observed when gender was analyzed alone. These finding suggests that experimental heat and pressure pain threshold is gender-related and BDNF dependent. In fact BDNF has a facilitatory effect on pain threshold in females but has an opposite effect in males; supporting the notion that BDNF is an effect modifier of the gender effects on pain threshold in healthy subjects.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil.
authors.forename: Luciana Cadore
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Stefani
authors.forename: Iraci Lucena da Silva
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Izabel Cristina Custodio
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Joanna Ripoll
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Rozisky
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fregni
authors.forename: Wolnei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Caumo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000097:blood*; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor