Prevention by celecoxib of secondary hyperalgesia induced by formalin in rats.

Ana P C Veiga, Igor D G Duarte, Marcelo N Avila, Patrícia G da Motta, Maria A K F Tatsuo, Janetti N Francischi

Departamento de Farmacologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Campus da Pampulha, CEP31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Life sciences 2004 Oct 22

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Administration of formalin in rat paws results in stimulation of nociceptive pathways, which leads to an increase in the excitability of neurons present in dorsal horn. This increased neuron excitability, described as central sensitization, may result in development of inflammatory pain at a distant site of injury application, known as secondary hyperalgesia. The aim of the present study was to verify whether formalin injection in rat paws would lead to secondary hyperalgesia development, as measured by the tail-flick test. We also aimed to investigate whether celecoxib, a specific cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) inhibitor, would affect secondary hyperalgesia. Formalin injected into the rat paws significantly reduced the latency for a flick response in the rat tail, which characterized development of secondary hyperalgesia. In addition, formalin-induced secondary hyperalgesia was locally prevented by pre-but not post-celecoxib treatment. However, celecoxib administered spinally inhibited formalin-induced secondary hyperalgesia, either administered previously or following formalin. In contrast, piroxicam, an unspecific COX inhibitor which displays an increased selectivity towards COX-1, only prevented secondary hyperalgesia to formalin at a high dose following spinal administration. Taken together, these results suggest that COX-2 plays an important role both in the central and in the peripheral nerve sensitization following formalin administration in rat paws. They also suggested that once central sensitization starts it can no longer be blocked by a specific COX-2 inhibitor administered locally. Notwithstanding, spinal administration of a specific COX-2 inhibitor still blocks ongoing sensitization and prevents maintenance of central sensitization. Copyright 2004 Elsevier Inc.

Citation

Ana P C Veiga, Igor D G Duarte, Marcelo N Avila, Patrícia G da Motta, Maria A K F Tatsuo, Janetti N Francischi. Prevention by celecoxib of secondary hyperalgesia induced by formalin in rats. Life sciences. 2004 Oct 22;75(23):2807-17