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Purpose
To assess thermal hyperalgesia in the mouse paw.
Experimental Design
Minimum number of mutant animals: 7 males + 7 females
Age at test: either 8 weeks or 17 weeks
Sexual dimorphism:
Procedure
- Baseline measurement
- Transfer mouse to the testing arena and allow to acclimate to the test environment.
- Ensure that the intensity and cut-off timer of the radiant heat source are set correctly.
- Position the light source below the platform and directed at the correct part of the paw.
- Turn the light source on and record the latency to paw withdrawal. The stimulus is terminated once a response is registered, or if the maximum exposure time is reached before the animal responds.
- Repeat the test so that each mouse is tested three times with the same paw.
- Challenge
- The challenge is administered after the baseline measurement has been completed.
- Anaesthetise the mouse and administer the challenge injection.
- Test 1
- After the specified length of time since the challenge injection, the mouse is re-tested using the same procedure as described for the baseline measurement.
- Test 2
- After the specified length of time since the challenge injection, the mouse is re-tested again using the same procedure as described for the baseline measurement.
Notes
This procedure is a pilot study from the Pain Phenotyping Pilot