Paclitaxel—A Valuable Tool for Inducing Visceral Pain in Preclinical Testing?

Abstract

Visceral pain is a unique clinical entity that lacks an effective and safe treatment. Proper preclinical models are essential for assessing new drugs developed for the treatment of this pathology. Few studies report that paclitaxel, an antineoplastic agent, can be used to induce visceral pain in laboratory animals. Our purpose was to investigate the reproducibility of these studies and to develop an animal method that would allow assessing consistent visceral pain. In this study, we used four doses of paclitaxel (3 mg × kg−1; 5 mg × kg−1; 10 mg × kg−1 and 15 mg × kg−1). Visceral pain was evaluated using a scale of abdominal pain immediately after the administration of a single dose of paclitaxel to rats. Tactile and thermal hypersensitivity were assessed using von Frey filaments and the tail flick test initially, at 24 h and 48 h after administration. Rats experienced visceral pain and mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity 24 h after the administration of paclitaxel. The intensity of the pain was increased in a dose-dependent manner with the highest intensity of effect being observed after the administration of a dose of 15 mg × kg−1. Paclitaxel induces visceral pain. The dosage varies depending on the employed strain of rat. This method allows for assessing the efficacy of analgesics to be useful against visceral pain if the paclitaxel dose is adjusted accordingly to the animal strain.