The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 2003-2004

Genomic Approaches to Defining Pain and Distress in Mice

Norman C. Peterson, DVM, PhD
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

A major objective of performing humane research on animals is to minimize or eliminate the painful experience of the subjects under study. In order to accomplish this objective, it is necessary to be able to identify if the animal is actually experiencing pain. This is often difficult in rodents as they have adapted protective strategies to hide potential weaknesses, and their normal activity levels are low during daylight hours when humans are working. Pain perception is influence by multiple genes, and if those genes (or responding genes) can be specifically identified, and their protein products quantified, an efficient analytical system of pain/distress detection in mice could be developed. Here, we propose to utilize high density microarray technology to identify those specific gene clusters in the mouse brain that are influenced by noxious stimuli. The results of these studies will then be used in other studies to further characterize different types of pain, to identify mouse strain differences in pain perception, and to characterize selected potential biomarkers for their application in the diagnosis of pain in mice.