Home › Cell Biology › Spontaneous and Evoked Measures of Pain in Murine Models of Monoarticular Knee Pain
Cell Biology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Spontaneous and Evoked Measures of Pain in Murine Models of Monoarticular Knee Pain

DOI: 10.3791/59024-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Perform intra-articular knee injections in mice for arthritis induction.
  • ✓ Measure evoked joint pain using standardized mechanical testing.
  • ✓ Quantify spontaneous pain behavior in chemically induced arthritis models.
  • ✓ Compare pain assessment methods across different murine arthritis models.
Protocol

We have developed an evoked measure of arthritis pain and coupled it with a standardized method for measuring spontaneous pain in different murine models of chemically induced arthritis. These measures are sensitive and reproducible for different types of joint pain.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~45 min/mouse (injection + testing); pain measurements conducted over multiple days post-induction
Model organism
Mouse (strain unspecified in abstract; C57BL/6 typical for arthritis models)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Perform intra-articular knee injections in mice

Administer chemical agents directly into the knee joint cavity to induce monoarticular arthritis. This establishes the pain model for subsequent measurement.

▶ 00:50
2
Measure evoked joint pain via mechanical testing

Apply calibrated mechanical stimuli to the affected knee joint and quantify withdrawal thresholds or pain-related responses. This provides an objective, reproducible assessment of evoked pain sensitivity.

▶ 01:31
3
Quantify spontaneous pain behaviors in mice

Monitor and record naturally occurring pain-related behaviors (e.g., weight bearing asymmetry, limping, guarding) without external stimulation. This captures spontaneous pain expression over defined observation periods.

▶ 02:49
4
Analyze representative evoked and spontaneous pain data

Review and interpret paired measurements of both evoked and spontaneous pain across different chemically induced arthritis models to validate sensitivity and reproducibility of the combined assessment approach.

▶ 06:06
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