Female C57BL6/J mice exhibit increased heat hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia compared to males following a T9 contusion spinal cord injury as measured by Hargreaves and SUDO von Frey testing

DOI:10.34945/F5SW2F

DATASET CITATION

Lee S. E., Greenough E. K., Oancea P., Scheinfeld A. R., Douglas A. M., Aldrich J. C., Gaudet A. D. (2023) Female C57BL6/J mice exhibit increased heat hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia compared to males following a T9 contusion spinal cord injury as measured by Hargreaves and SUDO von Frey testing. Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury. ODC-SCI:893 http://doi.org/10.34945/F5SW2F

ABSTRACT

STUDY PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test if contusion spinal cord injury (SCI) causes acute-to-chronic neuropathic pain-like symptoms in mice and to determine if there are sex differences in these SCI-induced pain-like behaviors. An in-depth analysis and discussion of these data was published in DOI: 10.1089/neu.2022.0482

DATA COLLECTED: The published study is the result of a comprehensive analysis of over 100 male and female 6-20 week old C57BL6/J mice pooled from several independent studies. All mice received either a sham (T9 laminectomy) or SCI surgery (T9 laminectomy followed by a 60-75 kdyn spinal cord contusion). Locomotor recovery was assessed via the Basso mouse scale (BMS), heat hyperalgesia in hindpaws was assessed via Hargreaves test (withdrawal latencies were measured for left and right hindpaws over three trials and averaged together into a single value), and mechanical allodynia in hindpaws (left and right averaged together) was assessed via the simplified up-down (SUDO) von Frey method. In general, BMS was performed at 1, 4, 7, 10, and 14 dpo (days post operation) and every 7 days thereafter, while SUDO and Hargreaves testing was performed weekly starting at 7 dpo. Initially, a range (60, 65, and 75 kdyn) of target forces was used to determine an appropriate contusion force to use in conjunction with Hargreaves and von Frey testing. 60 and 65 kdyn had comparable results and were pooled together while 75 kdyn resulted in confounding technical issues related to hindpaw placement (see CONCLUSIONS below)—consequently, 60 kdyn was ultimately chosen for the larger sex differences study. Overall, this data set includes pre-surgery testing data and at least 3 (usually 6+) post-surgery BMS, SUDO von Frey, and/or Hargreaves data points for 170 mice (48 SCI and 44 sham females; 38 SCI and 40 sham males).

CONCLUSIONS: In the preliminary study, mechanical and heat hypersensitivity was observed in female SCI mice relative to sham mice regardless of the contusion force used, with a significant decrease in Hargreaves latency being observed in 75 vs 60-65 kdyn suggesting enhanced heat hypersensitivity. However, 75 kdyn SCI caused excess motor deficits (e.g. impaired hindpaw plantar placement) that confounded pain sensitivity measurement at acute times (i.e. 7 and 14 dpo) leaving 60 kdyn as the better option for subsequent studies. In the larger sex differences study, we note that both males and females exhibit mechanical and heat hypersensitivity (measured by SUDO von Frey and Hargreaves test respectively) post-SCI relative to sham controls. For example, at 7 dpo SCI mice (males and females combined) have an average (± SEM) Hargreaves withdrawal latency of 11.2 ±0.6 sec compared to 15.0 ±0.4 sec for shams. Similarly, at 7 dpo SCI mice have an average SUDO von Frey threshold of 6.5 ±0.2 vs. 7.9 ±0.1 for shams. Although no sex differences were observed in locomotor recovery (measured via BMS), females display amplified SCI-induced mechanical hypersensitivity relative to males at 28 dpo (average SUDO score of 7.0 ±0.2 vs. 7.8 ±0.2) as well as a consistent ~3 sec decrease in thermal withdrawal latency from 7-28 dpo compared to males (e.g. males averaged across all dpo had a Hargreaves score of 12.2 ±0.5 sec vs. 9.2 ±0.3 sec for females).

KEYWORDS

chronic pain; neuropathic pain; sex as a biological variable; sex differences; Spinal Cord Injury

PROVENANCE / ORIGINATING PUBLICATIONS

• Lee SE, Greenough EK, Oancea P, Scheinfeld AR, Douglas AM, Gaudet AD. Sex Differences in Pain: Spinal Cord Injury in Female and Male Mice Elicits Behaviors Related to Neuropathic Pain. J Neurotrauma. 2023 May;40(9-10):833-844. Epub 2023 Mar 14.. doi:10.1089/neu.2022.0482.

RELEVANT LINKS

NOTES

DATASET INFO

Contact: Gaudet Andrew (andrew.gaudet@utexas.edu)

Lab: Gaudet Lab | University of Texas at Austin

ODC-SCI Accession:893

Records in Dataset: 1954

Fields per Record: 26

Last updated: 2023-06-23

Date published: 2023-06-23

Downloads: 8

Files: 2

LICENSE

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0)

FUNDING AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

University of Texas at Austin start-up funds (ADG), Wings for Life Foundation 139 (ADG), Mission Connect, a program of the TIRR Foundation 022-101 (ADG)

CONTRIBUTORS

Lee, Sydney E.

Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Greenough, Emily K.

Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, & Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Oancea, Paul

Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, & Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Scheinfeld, Ashley R.

Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, & Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Douglas, Apsaline M.

Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, & Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Aldrich, John C.

Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.

Gaudet, Andrew D.

Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, & Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.