Mackenzie Woock
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Emily Jutkiewicz
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Pharmacology / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Mackenzie Woock, Alexander Schwartz, Emily Jutkiewicz
Presenter: 16
Abstract
Pain currently impacts over 50 million U.S. adults and often decreases one’s ability to engage in activities, work, and familial responsibilities. Therefore, identifying novel treatments for pain that restore normal activities without producing adverse effects is an important area of research. The goal of this research project is to establish a paradigm to evaluate novel analgesics that reverse pain-induced suppression of behavior. Previous research indicates that mice will perform voluntary wheel running when given free-access to running wheels. We hypothesize that the induction of pain will decrease typical wheel running behavior in C57BL6/N mice and that certain drugs, specifically opioid analgesics and NSAIDs, will restore wheel running. Single-housed male C57BL6/N mice are given access to running wheels for at least 12-14 hr per day for 10 days during the dark cycle (7pm-7am). Once wheel running becomes stable per animal, different treatments are administered to the mice. The number of wheel revolutions per 15 min or 60 min intervals are recorded and averaged per day and/or per treatment group. When the lights first go out, wheel running increases and, over the course of 5 days, mice spend most of their time wheel running throughout the night. Wheeling running decreases as it gets closer to the time when the lights turn on. Over the first 3 nights of wheel access, the number of revolutions per night increases, but after 5 days of wheel access, running behavior is relatively unchanged across consecutive nights per mouse. Treatments that induce visceral pain (e.g., intraperitoneal injection of dilute acetic acid) or migraine-related pain (e.g., intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg nitroglycerin) decreases wheel running behavior for many hours over the night. In conclusion, this project established a procedure to evaluate pain-depressed behavior in mice. Future studies will evaluate pharmacological interventions that restore their normal wheel running behaviors.
Biomedical Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Natural/Life Sciences
