A rat chronic pain model of spinal cord contusion injury

Spinal cord injury-induced pain is a common clinical problem affecting adversely the quality of daily lives of spinal cord injured patients. Management with current pain medications can only lead to partial pain relief in some spinal cord injured patients, which is usually associated with unfavorable side effects. Development of specific medications for spinal cord injury-induced pain states relies on identification of new targets and/or pathways that contribute to chronic pain development post injury. We describe here the generation of a spinal cord contusion injury model that mimics the etiology and phenotypes of chronic pain states in spinal cord injured patients. Therefore, this model can be a useful tool for studying spinal cord injury mechanisms, functional recovery, research, and development of new medications for better functional and symptomatic improvements, including pain management.