Neonatal capsaicin treatment attenuates sensory-induced analgesia and nociception

Neonatal capsaicin treatment (50 mg/kg SC in two-day-old rats) increased thermal pain thresholds in both sexes when measured at different ages, decreased the responsiveness of adult females to specific noxious stimulation, and differentially decreased the magnitude of vaginocervical stimulation (VS)-produced analgesia in nociceptive tests. When adult, "capsaicin" females (n = 37) were significantly greater than controls (n = 24) in vocalization threshold (VT) to electrical tail shock (55.4%) and in paw lick (PL) latency to a hot plate (75.9%). In contrast, neither tail flick (TF) latency nor the leg withdrawal reflex (LWR) to mechanical pressure of the ipsilateral hind paw was affected by neonatal capsaicin. In response to VS, the controls showed a significant increase in thermal (TF, 279%; PL, 411%), mechanical pressure (LWR, 100%) and electrical (VT, 86.8%) pain thresholds. The "capsaicin" females response to VS was significantly less than controls in TF (26.1%), PL (26.0%), and LWR (54.1%) measures, and surprisingly, during VS their VT was significantly decreased below baseline levels 12.2% +/- 4.3. These results suggest that neonatal capsaicin treatment differentially attenuates the analgesia-producing component of VS, while sparing a nociception-inducing component of this stimulus. That is, after neonatal capsaicin treatment, the ability of VS to produce analgesia is reduced; moreover, VS lowers the VT, suggesting that it actually becomes a noxious stimulus in and of itself.