A novel behavioral assay for measuring cold sensation in mice

Behavioral models of cold responses are important tools for exploring the molecular mechanisms of cold sensation. To complement the currently cold behavioral assays and allow further studies of these mechanisms, we have developed a new technique to measure the cold response threshold, the cold plant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-06, Vol.7 (6), p.e39765-e39765
Main Authors: Brenner, Daniel S, Golden, Judith P, Gereau, 4th, Robert W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analgesia
Analysis
Anesthesiology
Animal models
Animals
Assaying
Behavior, Animal
Biology
Cold stimuli
Cold Temperature
Cooling
Dry ice
Freund's adjuvant
Glass plates
Heat
Inflammation
Kinases
Latency
Male
Measurement
Medicine
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Molecular modelling
Morphine
Neurosciences
Pain
Pain Measurement - methods
Pain perception
Pain Perception - physiology
Pain Threshold - physiology
Peripheral neuropathy
Physiology
Preferences
Rodents
Thermosensing - physiology
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Summary:Behavioral models of cold responses are important tools for exploring the molecular mechanisms of cold sensation. To complement the currently cold behavioral assays and allow further studies of these mechanisms, we have developed a new technique to measure the cold response threshold, the cold plantar assay. In this assay, animals are acclimated on a glass plate and a cold stimulus is applied to the hindpaw through the glass using a pellet of compressed dry ice. The latency to withdrawal from the cooled glass is used as a measure of the cold response threshold of the rodents, and the dry ice pellet provides a ramping cold stimulus on the glass that allows the correlation of withdrawal latency values to rough estimates of the cold response threshold temperature. The assay is highly sensitive to manipulations including morphine-induced analgesia, Complete Freund's Adjuvant-induced inflammatory allodynia, and Spinal Nerve Ligation-induced neuropathic allodynia.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0039765