Aspirin Analgesia in Mice: The Effects of Gonadectomy, Surgery, and Dose Response On the Abdominal Constriction Assay
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2001
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Thesis
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Studies were conducted to examine the role of gonadal hormones in the effectiveness of aspirin in CD-1 mice. Animal models have shown strong and consistent sex differences in centrally mediated pain behavior and physiology. However, there is a relative lack of research on sex differences in peripherally mediated analgesic mechanisms. This study examined the apparent sex differences in aspirin analgesia found by Mogil and colleagues (2000) in a pilot study that found aspirin to be more effective in males than females in a dose dependent manner. The first study was a gonadectomy study designed to investigate the effects of gonadal hormones on aspirin analgesia. Subjects underwent either gonadectomy or sham surgeries. It was hypothesized that, as with centrally mediated analgesia, female hormones would be the determining factor in producing the sex difference. Data were gathered using the abdominal constriction ("writhing") assay. Contrary to hypotheses, we found a strong main effect of drug (aspirin v. saline), no main effect of sex or surgery, and a 3-way interaction trend between sex, drug, and surgery. A follow-up study attempted to more closely replicate Mogil's study by only using intact subjects under several doses of the drug. There was, again, a strong main effect of drug, but no sex difference. A retrospective comparison of sham subjects with intact animals at the same dose showed a trend of surgery effects that approached significance. These results do not support sex differences at the doses studied but may suggest, at best, a weak influence of gonadal hormone on aspirin analgesia below statistical detection when coupled with surgery.