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The postnatal development of tail-flick latencies to acute and repeated stimulation in the rat
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2002
Abstract
The development of the reaction to thermal nociceptive stimulation was studied in neonatal rats of two strains (albino Wistar and pigmented Long-Evans). Using the tail-flick method in neonates of both strains the effects of daily repeated thermal stimulation (sensitisation) were compared to those of acute stimulation applied on 1 day only. During the whole postnatal development period studied (3-28 days) the pigmented rat pups were more sensitive to a repeated thermal nociceptive stimulation than the albinos. The latency of the response did not change linearly during the developmental time studied, but had a pronounced peak (decreased sensitivity) in the period of eye-lid opening. In the pigmented animals the peak appeared 1 day earlier than in the albinos. At the time of the weaning period the latencies of the response were again shorter. Experimental Physiology (2002) 87.1, 63-67.
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