The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that the mice androgenized in their perinatal period show in their later life heightened basal pain sensitivity and lowered analgesic effect induced by cold water swim.
Entered into the experiment were ...
The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that the mice androgenized in their perinatal period show in their later life heightened basal pain sensitivity and lowered analgesic effect induced by cold water swim.
Entered into the experiment were 29 female mice androgenized by intraperitoneal injection of 100㎍ testoste-rone propionate within 24 hours after birth and 30 female mice given with intraperitoneal injection of the same amount of normal saline as the control group. On 160th day after birth, the pain sensitivity was measured in terms of the tail flick latency using 52±1℃ water before and after forced swim in cold water(15±1℃) for six minutes to see the change of the pain sensitivity.
The results were as follows
1) The androgenized mice revealed significantly heightened basal pain sensitivity as compared to the control mice.
2) The lowering effect of the pain sensitivity by cold water forced swim was significant in both the androgenized and the control groups, but the effect was significantly less in the androgenized mice than in the control group.
From these results, the author suggests that the androgenized female mice exposed to the testosterone in the neonatal period have heightened basal pain sensitivity and lowered cold water swim-induced analgesia than the normal female mice in their later lives.