Evidence that ampicillin and streptomycin can suppress autotomic behavior in rats

Abstract

Autotomy is a phenomenon of deafferentation of the rat limb by transection of the sciatic and saphenous nerves, inducing an automutilation of the limb as a response to painful stimuli generated from the amputation neuroma. Autotomy has been proposed as an experimental model for neuralgia pain. The present study was designed to investigate the influence of streptomycin, ampicillin and chloramphenicol applied either in the vicinity of the nerve stump or intramuscularly. The course of autotomy was followed during 8 weeks using the scoring system of Wall et al. (1979). It was shown that streptomycin and ampicillin can suppress autotomy when applied topically whereas systemic use of the investigated antibiotics was efficient only when streptomycin was injected.

Eksperiment je izveden na 60 Albino Wistar pacova kod kojih je izvršeno presecanje n. ischiadicus-a i n. saphenus-a što je za posledicu imalo pojavu fenomena autotomije. Ovaj fenomen predstavlja eksperimentalni model bola, a ispoljava se samoodgrizanjem delova denervisanog stopala eksperimentalne životinje. Većina autora smatra da supstance i lekovi koji sprečavaju autotomiju utiču i na supresiju bola. Imajući ovo u vidu, cilj naših istraživanja bio je da ispitivane antibiotike primenimo na eksperimentalnom modelu posle ispoljavanja fenomena autotomije, kako bi utvrdili njihovo dejstvo na supresiju ovog fenomena. U isto vreme moguće je razmatrati i eventualno korišćenje ovih lekova u terapiji bola. Rezultati naših istraživanja pokazuju da streptomicin primenjen lokalno i intramuskularno sprečava autotomno ponašanje kod pacova, dok ampicilin sprečava razvoj ovog fenomena primenjen lokalno. Mehanizam delovanja ovih antibiotika još uvek nije u potpunosti razjašnjen, ali to ne umanjuje njihovu eventualnu primenu u terapiji hroničnog bola.