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Effects of ethanol on mechanical allodynia and dynamic weight bearing in male and female mice with spared nerve injury
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Effects of ethanol on mechanical allodynia and dynamic weight bearing in male and female mice with spared nerve injury

Mitchell A. Nothem, Jason R. Wickman, Laura L. Giacometti and Jacqueline M. Barker
Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
30 Dec 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.14997
PMID: 36521835
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9992011View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Substance Abuse
BackgroundMen and women with chronic pain report increased alcohol use and are more likely to be diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. The relationship between alcohol use and pain is bidirectional. Alcohol is used as an analgesic, but chronic alcohol intake increases pain. Sex differences in the relationship between chronic pain and alcohol are reported in the clinical and preclinical literature, but due to this bidirectional relationship, it is challenging to investigate the mechanisms that contribute to these differences. Thus, animal models of chronic pain are needed to characterize the efficacy of ethanol as an analgesic in males and females. The current experiments tested the hypothesis that ethanol differentially reduces pain behaviors in male and female mice in chronic neuropathic pain. MethodsThe spared nerve injury (SNI) model was used to investigate the analgesic effects of multiple doses of ethanol (0.5, 1, 2, g/kg i.p.) in male and female mice using von Frey and dynamic weight-bearing (DWB) assays. ResultsIn both male and female mice, SNI led to robust allodynia and shifts in dynamic weight bearing. In male SNI mice, all three doses of ethanol fully reversed mechanical allodynia and shifts in DWB. In SNI females, only the highest dose (2.0 g/kg) was fully antiallodynic in the von Frey assay, while shifts in weight bearing were reversed at the 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg doses. The differences between male and females were not due to lower blood ethanol concentrations in female mice. ConclusionThese data indicate that while ethanol has antiallodynic and antinociceptive effects in male and female mice, the doses and time course of these effects are distinct. Studies investigating the relationship between pain and ethanol exposure in mice should consider sex as a key variable. These data also inform reported sex differences in rodent models of chronic pain and in chronic pain patients.

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8 citations in Web of Science
5 citations in Scopus

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Web of Science research areas
Substance Abuse
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