The Rat Grimace Scale: A Partially Automated Method for Quantifying Pain in the Laboratory Rat via Facial Expressions

Author:

Sotocina Susana G,Sorge Robert E1,Zaloum Austin1,Tuttle Alexander H1,Martin Loren J1,Wieskopf Jeffrey S1,Mapplebeck Josiane CS1,Wei Peng2,Zhan Shu3,Zhang Shuren3,McDougall Jason J3,King Oliver D2,Mogil Jeffrey S1

Affiliation:

1. Dept. of Psychology and Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada

2. Boston Biomedical Research Institute, Watertown, MA 02472 USA

3. Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4N1, Canada

Abstract

We recently demonstrated the utility of quantifying spontaneous pain in mice via the blinded coding of facial expressions. As the majority of preclinical pain research is in fact performed in the laboratory rat, we attempted to modify the scale for use in this species. We present herein the Rat Grimace Scale, and show its reliability, accuracy, and ability to quantify the time course of spontaneous pain in the intraplantar complete Freund's adjuvant, intraarticular kaolin-carrageenan, and laparotomy (post-operative pain) assays. The scale's ability to demonstrate the dose-dependent analgesic efficacy of morphine is also shown. In addition, we have developed software, Rodent Face Finder®, which successfully automates the most labor-intensive step in the process. Given the known mechanistic dissociations between spontaneous and evoked pain, and the primacy of the former as a clinical problem, we believe that widespread adoption of spontaneous pain measures such as the Rat Grimace Scale might lead to more successful translation of basic science findings into clinical application.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience,Molecular Medicine

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