Fei San Lee,Carlos J Cruz,Kyle D Allen,Rebecca A Wachs
{"title":"Gait assessment in a female rat Sprague Dawley model of disc-associated low back pain.","authors":"Fei San Lee,Carlos J Cruz,Kyle D Allen,Rebecca A Wachs","doi":"10.1080/03008207.2024.2395287","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"PURPOSE\r\nGait disturbances are common in human low back pain (LBP) patients, suggesting potential applicability to rodent LBP models. This study aims to assess the influence of disc-associated LBP on gait in female Sprague Dawley rats and explore the utility of the open-source Gait Analysis Instrumentation and Technology Optimized for Rodents (GAITOR) suite as a potential alternative tool for spontaneous pain assessment in a previously established LBP model.\r\n\r\nMATERIALS AND METHODS\r\nDisc degeneration was surgically induced using a one-level disc scrape injury method, and microcomputed tomography was used to assess disc volume loss. After disc injury, axial hypersensitivity was evaluated using the grip strength assay, and an open field test was used to detect spontaneous pain-like behavior.\r\n\r\nRESULTS\r\nResults demonstrated that injured animals exhibit a significant loss in disc volume and reduced grip strength. Open field test did not detect significant differences in distance traveled between sham and injured animals. Concurrently, animals with injured discs did not display significant gait abnormalities in stance time imbalance, temporal symmetry, spatial symmetry, step width, stride length, and duty factor compared to sham. However, comparisons with reference values of normal gait reported in prior literature reveal that injured animals exhibit mild deviations in forelimb and hindlimb stance time imbalance, forelimb temporal symmetry, and hindlimb spatial symmetry at some time points.\r\n\r\nCONCLUSIONS\r\nThis study concludes that the disc injury may have very mild effects on gait in female rats within 9 weeks post-injury and recommends future in depth dynamic gait analysis and longer studies beyond 9 weeks to potentially detect gait.","PeriodicalId":10661,"journal":{"name":"Connective Tissue Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Connective Tissue Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03008207.2024.2395287","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"CELL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
PURPOSE
Gait disturbances are common in human low back pain (LBP) patients, suggesting potential applicability to rodent LBP models. This study aims to assess the influence of disc-associated LBP on gait in female Sprague Dawley rats and explore the utility of the open-source Gait Analysis Instrumentation and Technology Optimized for Rodents (GAITOR) suite as a potential alternative tool for spontaneous pain assessment in a previously established LBP model.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Disc degeneration was surgically induced using a one-level disc scrape injury method, and microcomputed tomography was used to assess disc volume loss. After disc injury, axial hypersensitivity was evaluated using the grip strength assay, and an open field test was used to detect spontaneous pain-like behavior.
RESULTS
Results demonstrated that injured animals exhibit a significant loss in disc volume and reduced grip strength. Open field test did not detect significant differences in distance traveled between sham and injured animals. Concurrently, animals with injured discs did not display significant gait abnormalities in stance time imbalance, temporal symmetry, spatial symmetry, step width, stride length, and duty factor compared to sham. However, comparisons with reference values of normal gait reported in prior literature reveal that injured animals exhibit mild deviations in forelimb and hindlimb stance time imbalance, forelimb temporal symmetry, and hindlimb spatial symmetry at some time points.
CONCLUSIONS
This study concludes that the disc injury may have very mild effects on gait in female rats within 9 weeks post-injury and recommends future in depth dynamic gait analysis and longer studies beyond 9 weeks to potentially detect gait.
期刊介绍:
The aim of Connective Tissue Research is to present original and significant research in all basic areas of connective tissue and matrix biology.
The journal also provides topical reviews and, on occasion, the proceedings of conferences in areas of special interest at which original work is presented.
The journal supports an interdisciplinary approach; we present a variety of perspectives from different disciplines, including
Biochemistry
Cell and Molecular Biology
Immunology
Structural Biology
Biophysics
Biomechanics
Regenerative Medicine
The interests of the Editorial Board are to understand, mechanistically, the structure-function relationships in connective tissue extracellular matrix, and its associated cells, through interpretation of sophisticated experimentation using state-of-the-art technologies that include molecular genetics, imaging, immunology, biomechanics and tissue engineering.