65% of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) experience chronic pain. Further, chronic pain afflicts females more frequently, and can act on females vs. males via distinct cellular mechanisms. Unfortunately, we still lack effective treatments for chronic pain and do not fully understand mechanisms underlying sex differences in pain. In our new preprint, we reveal that female and male mice with SCI exhibit neuropathic pain symptoms. Further, females have amplified pain symptoms compared to males. Our thorough study illuminates an effective SCI model and pain tests for elucidating SCI pain-related mechanisms. Future studies should use complementary evoked and affective-related pain tests to gain a broad perspective on SCI-driven pain. We also had fun discussing the implications of this study, relating to sex differences and other future directions.
Sydney Lee, Emily Greenough, and Paul Oancea from the lab led the study.
