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Analgesic Effect of Methane Rich Saline in a Rat Model of Chronic Inflammatory Pain

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Abstract

How oxidative stress contributes to neuro-inflammation and chronic pain is documented, and methane is reported to protect against ischemia–reperfusion injury in the nervous system via anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. We studied whether methane in the form of methane rich saline (MS) has analgesic effects in a monoarthritis (MA) rat model of chronic inflammatory pain. Single and repeated injections of MS (i.p.) reduced MA-induced mechanical allodynia and multiple methane treatments blocked activation of glial cells, decreased IL-1β and TNF-α production and MMP-2 activity, and upregulated IL-10 expression in the spinal cord on day 10 post-MA. Furthermore, MS reduced infiltrating T cells and expression of IFN-γ and suppressed MA-induced oxidative stress (MDA and 8-OHDG), and increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activity. Thus, MS may offer anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects to reduce chronic inflammatory pain.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, China (STCSM, 16ZR1400500).

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Author notes

  1. Shu-Zhuan Zhou, Ya-Lan Zhou and Feng Ji have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Changhai Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Shu-Zhuan Zhou, Feng Ji, Yan Zhang & Hua Xu

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, 188 Hospital of PLA, Chaozhou, 521000, China

    Shu-Zhuan Zhou

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Ya-Lan Zhou

  4. Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310006, China

    Hao-Ling Li

  5. Department of Anesthesiology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Hu Lv

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  1. Shu-Zhuan Zhou
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Contributions

S-ZZ, YLZ and FJ performed the behavioral tests, western blot, flow cytometry, gelatin zymographic analysis and drafted the manuscript. HLL and HL participated in the oxidative stress assays, immunohistochemistry, ELISA experiments. YZ produced the statistical analysis. HX conceived the study, designed the experiments, wrote the paper. All of the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hua Xu.

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Zhou, SZ., Zhou, YL., Ji, F. et al. Analgesic Effect of Methane Rich Saline in a Rat Model of Chronic Inflammatory Pain. Neurochem Res 43, 869–877 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-018-2490-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-018-2490-2

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