Sensory properties of ankle joint capsule mechanoreceptors in acute monoarthritic chickens

The physiological properties of joint capsule mechanoreceptors in the ankle joint of monoarthritic chickens were studied by recording the electrical activity from single sensory afferent nerve fibres dissected from the parafibular nerve. A monoarticular arthritis was induced by the intra-articular injection of Freund's complete adjuvant which resulted in an acute inflammatory condition and a very rapid onset of destructive cartilage damage. A detailed description of the anatomy in both the normal and arthritic joints was presented. It was considered that by day 3 after adjuvant injection there was a reproducible severe destructive arthropathy which was of value for investigating the physiological responses of the joint capsule receptors. The majority of receptor units identified were slowly adapting mechanoreceptors which were divided into groups III (CV: 2.5-20 m/sec) and IV (CV: < 2.5 m/sec) units. At least 3 significant differences were observed in the response characteristics of the joint capsule receptors from arthritic joints compared to those receptors found in normal joints. Firstly, there was an increase in receptive field size with 62% of group IV and 80% of group III units having large receptive fields. Secondly, there was a decrease in response threshold to mechanical stimulation of the joint capsule. Thirdly, a higher proportion of units responded to joint movement in the arthritic joints. These changes in sensitivity of the joint capsule receptors showed some similarities to adjuvant arthritis models in the rat and provide peripheral neural evidence for the possible painful consequences of the inflammatory arthropathies found in chicken.