Dataset for male Sprague Dawley rats after lateral fluid percussion TBI including behavioral and pharmacological data for chronic pain after injection of an activating DREADD virus specific for the neurons of the Locus Coeruleus

STUDY PURPOSE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients frequently experience chronic pain that can enhance their suffering and significantly impair rehabilitative efforts. The locus coeruleus (LC) is the principal noradrenergic (NA) nucleus participating in descending pain inhibition. We therefore hypothesized that selectively stimulating LC neurons, using a chemogenetic approach, would reduce nociception after TBI. DATA COLLECTED: DATA COLLECTED: The data set includes comparisons of hindpaw mechanical nociceptive withdrawal thresholds (using von Frey filaments) of male (300g), uninjured Sprague Dawley rats and rats injured using the lateral fluid percussion model (1.3 – 0.1 atm) of TBI (n = 175, 6-8 per group). Some of the uninjured and TBI rats were injected, prior to the injury, either with a Designer Receptor Exclusively Activated by Designer Drug (DREADD) viral construct or a control virus into the locus coeruleus (LC). Systemic injection of CNO would activate the LC neurons transfected with the DREADD virus that would stimulate an analgesic response by the LC but not those injected with the control virus. Mechanical nociceptive thresholds were measured using von Frey fibers and measured between 3 to 49 days post-injury. The efficacy of diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC), a critical endogenous pain control mechanism, was assessed using the hindpaw administration of capsaicin on days 49. Immunohistochemical analyses demonstrated the selective expression of the DREADD construct in LC neurons after stereotactic injection. DATA USAGE NOTES: