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Updated: May 24, 2026
Chronic Constriction of the Sciatic Nerve and Pain Hypersensitivity Testing in Rats
Published on: March 13, 2012
Analgesic effect of gabapentin in a rat model for chronic constrictive injury
Lu-Lu Ma1, Wei Liu, Yu-Guang Huang
1Department of Anesthesiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100710, China.
Background:
Gabapentin has been widely and successfully used in the clinic for many neuropathic pain syndromes since last decade, however its analgesic mechanisms are still elusive. Our study was to investigate whether Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) contributes to the analgesic effect of gabapentin on a chronic constriction injury (CCI) model.
Methods:
Gabapentin (2%, 100 mg/kg) or saline (0.5 ml/100 g) was injected intraperitoneally 15 minutes prior to surgery and then every 12 hours from postoperative day 0 - 4 to all rats in control, sham and CCI groups. The analgesic effect of gabapentin was assessed by measuring mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of rats. Expression and activation of CaMKII were quantified by reverse-transcriptional polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting.
Results:
The analgesic effect of gabapentin on mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia was significant in the CCI model, with maximal reduction reached on postoperative day 8. Gabapentin decreased the expression of the total CaMKII and phosphorylated CaMKII in CCI rats.
Conclusion:
The analgesic effect of gabapentin on CCI rats may be related to the decreased expression and phosphorylation of CaMKII in the spinal cord.
