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Effects of Decrease of Serotonin Synthesis and Subsequent Stress in Embryogenesis on Rat Pain Sensitivity during the Prepuberty Period of Development

  • Comparative and Ontogenic Physiology
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Abstract

In the 25-day old rats there were studied effects of prenatal serotonin (5-HT) depletions and stress on pain sensitivity evaluated using formalin test by indexes of the biphasic behavioral response (BBR)-the number of flexions and shakings as well as duration of licking of the formalin injected leg, duration of the first and second response phases and on morphofunctional characteristics of the brain structures involved in BBR. The 5-HT depletion (a single intraperitoneal injection of parachlorophenylalanine, an inhibitor of 5-HT synthesis, to pregnant females at the initial period of development of the serotoninergic system) produced morphological lesions in the neocortex areas and hippocampus and raphe nuclei, which were accompanied by an essential decrease of the pain sensitivity (until its complete inhibition) during the second, tonic, BBR phase. In the prenatally stressed rats (immobilization of pregnant females for the last pregnancy week) with prenatal 5-HT depletion the nerve cell death in the above brain structures was accompanied by an increase of the pain sensitivity revealed by all response indexes during the second, tonic phase, whereas in the prenatally stressed rats developed without the intervention into the serotoninergic system, only one index was found to increase. The obtained results indicate that 5-HT participates in formation of the tonic nociceptive system and in mediation of effects of the prenatal stress on the pain sensitivity to the long-term nociceptive stimulus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    I. P. Butkevich, V. A. Mikhailenko, L. I. Khozhai & V. A. Otellin

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  1. I. P. Butkevich
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  2. V. A. Mikhailenko
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  3. L. I. Khozhai
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  4. V. A. Otellin
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__________

Translated from Zhurnal Evolyutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2005, pp. 168–175.

Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Butkevich, Mikhailenko, Khozhai, Otellin.

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Butkevich, I.P., Mikhailenko, V.A., Khozhai, L.I. et al. Effects of Decrease of Serotonin Synthesis and Subsequent Stress in Embryogenesis on Rat Pain Sensitivity during the Prepuberty Period of Development. J Evol Biochem Phys 41, 211–220 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10893-005-0056-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10893-005-0056-9

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