Assessment of Allodynia Relief by Tissue-Protective Molecules in a Rat Model of Nerve Injury-Induced Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain following nerve injury is a chronic disease characterized by allodynia and hyperalgesia of either mechanical or thermal origin. The mechanism underlying this disease is poorly understood leading to pharmacologic and physiotherapeutic control that is often insufficient. In this chapter, we describe a method to induce nerve injury in rats to create a robust animal model for studying neuropathic pain. Additionally we describe a method to follow up on animals in the process of testing treatments for efficacy in alleviating allodynia by testing for both mechanical and thermal allodynia with reproducible results.