Effect of Capsaicin on Causalgiform Pain in the Rat

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study is to obtain the effective concentration of capsaicin to relieve pain with no change in the number of C-fibers and its effective duration for pain relief. Capsaicin has been used extremely as a experimental tool and as topical medications for acute or chronic tissue injuries and partial nerve injury is the main cause of causalgiform pain disorders in humans. Here, the left sciatic nerve was ligated unilaterally at the high level of the thigh to prepare an animal model of this pain condition. The rat developed guarding behavior of the ipsilateral hind paw within a few hours after the operation and this behavior was maintained for several months thereafter, suggesting the possibility of spontaneous pain. These animals were divided into two groups(4-week & 8-week) and each group was subdivided into five groups by different concentration (0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 & 2.0%). Each capsaicin concentration was treated locally on the spinal cord-side of the ligated nerve and the foot withdrawal latency was measured. Thereafter, the dorsal roots of L5 were removed from both sides immediately after in tracardial perfusion for the counting of C-fibers by the histological procedure. There were no significant differences in the foot-withdrawal latency and the number of C-fibers between the left side treated with 0.05% capsaicin and the right side treated with the vehicle. However, latencies of the left sides treated with 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0% capsaicin increased significantly throughout 4-6 weeks with almost no change in the number of C-fibers, and the latencies showed the trends to approach slowly to those of the conditions after operation. The latency of subgroup treated with 2.0% increased by approximate 10% more than that of the right side throughout 8 weeks, and the number of C-fibers decreased by about 30% or more These results suggest that the elevated latency with capsaicin(0.1-1.0%) treatment is due to the inhibition of impulse transmission throughout the primary afferent fiber and the data from 2.0% are due to partial destruction of C-fibers. Therefore, capsaicin concentrations from 0.1% to 1.0% are probably very effective for the treatment of causalgiform pain with almost no destruction of C-fibers.