Behavioral Measures of Pain Thresholds.

Pain afflicts a fifth of the population, and animal models have proven useful in target validation and analgesic drug development. Thresholds to pain are tested by applying a sensory stimulus, such as heat or pressure, and observing the resulting withdrawal behavior. Sensitized pain models involve provoking an inflammatory response or damaging the nerves themselves, and testing the changes in pain threshold. In this article, mouse models of acute mechanical and thermal pain and inflammatory, visceral, and neuropathic pain are discussed. These behavioral measures can be used to phenotype transgenic mice for target validation and mechanistic studies, as well as to screen potential analgesic compounds. Curr. Protoc. Mouse Biol. 1:383-412 © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.