Woolf Clifford J
Cerebral Functions Group, Department of Anatomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WCIE 6BT Great Britain.
Pain. 1984 Apr;18(4):325-343. doi: 10.1016/0304-3959(84)90045-9.
Chronic decerebrate rats have been prepared by the aspiration of all the cranial contents rostral to the mesencephalon. With careful nursing, body temperature control and orogastric tube feeding the rats survive for up to 4 months. The decerebrate rats have intact brain stem and spinal reflexes including locomotion, righting reflexes and grooming. Mild noxious cutaneous thermal and mechanical stimuli of an intensity which does not produce tissue damage evokes flexion withdrawal reflexes, vocalization, orientation to the site of the injury and generalized escape or attack responses, from the animals. These effects are transient and only occur during the application of the stimulus. The rats do not exhibit stress reactions, aggression or vocalization when handled before or after application of such noxious stimuli. The production of localized tissue injury by thermal or chemical means results in long term alterations (up to 6 weeks) in the thresholds and excitability of the flexor reflex, both ipsilateral and contralateral, to the site of the injury. It is proposed that the reduction in the flexor reflex threshold is analogous to the hyperalgesia and allodynia that follows tissue injury in man and that the long term alterations in the flexor reflex in the chronic decerebrate rat provide a model for the study of chronic pain, without the ethical problems associated with such studies in intact animals.
通过抽吸中脑前方的所有颅内容物制备慢性去大脑大鼠。经过精心护理、体温控制和经口胃管喂养，这些大鼠可存活长达4个月。去大脑大鼠具有完整的脑干和脊髓反射，包括运动、翻正反射和梳理行为。轻度的有害皮肤热刺激和机械刺激，其强度不会造成组织损伤，会引起动物的屈肌退缩反射、发声、对损伤部位的定向以及全身性逃避或攻击反应。这些效应是短暂的，仅在刺激施加期间出现。在施加此类有害刺激之前或之后处理大鼠时，它们不会表现出应激反应、攻击行为或发声。通过热或化学手段造成局部组织损伤会导致同侧和对侧屈肌反射的阈值和兴奋性发生长期改变（长达6周），该改变与损伤部位相关。有人提出，屈肌反射阈值的降低类似于人类组织损伤后出现的痛觉过敏和异常性疼痛，并且慢性去大脑大鼠屈肌反射的长期改变为慢性疼痛的研究提供了一个模型，而不存在与完整动物进行此类研究相关的伦理问题。
