Combination of ultrasound and treadmill exercise alleviates neuropathic pain in chronic constriction injury rats

• Main Authors: Po-ChingHuang, 黃柏菁
• Other Authors: Ching-Hsia Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73245148225319998458

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 物理治療研究所 === 101 === Neuropathic pain is a common neurological disorder which affects 7% of general population. Clinical interventions included medication and electrical stimulation. However, the effect of ultrasound treatment remains unclear. Also, previous report suggested that treadmill exercise alleviated neuropathic symptoms. Therefore, we investigated the effect of ultrasound treatment and the outcome of combining treadmill exercise and ultrasound treatment in chronic constriction injury (CCI) induced neuropathic rats in this study. We provided a constricted injury on rat’s sciatic nerve. Rats were randomly assigned to five groups: sham operation, CCI, CCI with ultrasound treatment (CCI+USD), CCI with treadmill exercise treatment (CCI+TME), and CCI with combine treatment (CCI+TME+USD). Ultrasound group using 1 MHz probe with 1 w/cm2 and 100% on-off cycle, gently apply on the skin surface for 5 minutes, 5 days/week for 4 weeks; treadmill exercise group receiving a week off after surgery, the exercise started at day 7 and the parameter set at 14-16 m/min with 8% incline grade for 30 minutes, 5 days/week for 3 weeks. Thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia were used to determine the level of neuropathic pain by using Plantar Test and Von Frey Aesthesiometer, respectively. After sacrifice, sciatic nerve and branch of sciatic nerve, spinal cord and dorsal root ganglions were harvested and prepared for determining the expression of cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10), ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1 (IBA-1), neurotransimitter substance P and its receptor neurokini-1 receptor (NK-1R). In thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia, we found that i) the withdrawal latency (WL) and withdrawal threshold (WT) of CCI group was shorter than sham ones; ii) all three treatments groups increased the responses of WL and WT; iii) the WL and WT of CCI+TME+USD group was higher than CCI+USD or CCI+TME groups and there were no difference between CCI+USD and CCI+TME groups; iv) after 4-weeks intervention, the WL and WT were indistinguishable between sham and CCI+TME+USD group. In TNF-α, the CCI+TME and CCI+TME+USD groups were lower than CCI group in sciatic nerve; in IL-6, the CCI+TME and CCI+TME+USD groups were lower than sham group in sciatic nerve; in IL-10, the CCI and CCI+TME+USD groups were higher than sham group in sciatic nerve. In conclusion, ultrasound treatment reduced neuropathic pain and combination of ultrasound and treadmill exercise could even provide a better outcome.