Expression of spinal cord c-fos with cold therapy in rats of carrageenan-induced inflammatory muscle pain

Carrageenan으로 유도된 염증성 근통증 흰쥐 모델에서 냉치료에 의한 척수의 c-fos의 발현

Expression of c-fos, an immediate early gene, has accepted to be a marker of functional activity in neurons. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of cold therapy on the expression of spinal cord c-fos in rats of carrageenan-induced muscle pain. Muscle pain was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats by intra-muscular injection of gastrocnemius with $2\%$ carrageenan. The paw withdrawal latency (PWL) and tail flick test (TFT) responses to heat stimuli were used to detect secondary hyperalgesia produced by the muscle pain and measured to assess the effects of cold. The expression of c-fos was determined in the lumbar regions of the spinal cord by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry assays. The secondary hyperalgesia to heat simuli (PWL and TFT) were significantly reduced in cold therapy compared with that in the controls. In RT-PCR assays the expression of c-fos mRNA was down-regulated in the lumbar spinal cord in cold group. In addition, Fos immunoreactivity in the dorsal horn of the lumbar spinal cord was decreased in cold group. These results suggested that application of cold attributed to increase PWL and TFT responses and to decrease expression of the c-fos produced by muscle pain.