| Behavioral Effects of Different Concentrations of Formalin on Pain Test. |
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Il Ok Lee, Sun Hee Kim |
1Department of Anesthesia, College of Medicine, Korea University, Guro Hospital, Korea. iloklee@hotmail.com
2Department of Anesthesia, Se-Ran Hospital, Seoul, Korea. |
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| Abstract |
BACKGROUND
The stimulus provided by a subcutaneous injection of formalin is tonic, moderate, continuous pain.
We evaluated the effect of formalin at three concentrations, 1.5%, 2.5%, and 5% - 50nl to determine the relationship between formalin concentration and pain behaviors.
METHODS
Male Sprague-Dawley rats (250 - 300 g body weight) were used. Following formalin (n = 8 each group) or saline (control group, n = 6) injection, flinching, licking, lifting, and favoring responses were recorded during the early (0 - 5 minutes after injection; phase 1) and late phases (20 - 60 minutes after injection, phase 2).
Sham-injected rats (n = 4) underwent subcutaneous insertion of the needle, but no substance was injected.
RESULTS
During both phases, flinching was more frequent in the 5% formalin group than in the control group (P < 0.05).
As for the licking behavior, phase 1 of 2.5% and 5% formalin groups and phase 2 of all three groups showed longer durations than those in the control group, respectively (P < 0.05). As for the lifting behavior, phase 2 of the 2.5% and 5% group showed a longer duration than the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant biphasic response of favoring in each group.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that the formalin concentration (2.5% or higher) plays an important role in inducing the biphasic response. Flinching and licking were the more spontaneous and robust biphasic parameters. In both phases, flinching was robust for 5% formalin. |
| Key Words:
Animals: rats; Measurement techniques: formalin test; concentration; Pain: nociception |
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