Aerobic exercise prevents the loss of endogenous pain modulation in male and female Sprague Dawley rats after lateral fluid percussion injury

STUDY PURPOSE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients frequently experience chronic pain that can enhance their suffering and significantly impair rehabilitative efforts. A promising candidate therapy for the amelioration of post-TBI pain is aerobic exercise. In fact, exercise is a treatment recommendation central to chronic pain management, particularly in the management of musculoskeletal conditions such as joint and back pain as well as widespread pain conditions such as fibromyalgia. The dataset contains primarily behavioral and histological data of the comparison between male and female adult (80 to 85 days old at start of study) Sprague Dawley rats with and without exercise after TBI focusing on chronic pain. Please refer to the methodology file for more details. DATA COLLECTED: The data set includes comparisons of hindpaw mechanical nociceptive withdrawal thresholds (using von Frey filaments) of male and female, uninjured and injured Sprague Dawley rats using the lateral fluid percussion model (1.3 – 0.1 atm) of TBI (males: n = 60, females: n=60). Groups include TBI plus exercise, TBI plus sedentary and sham rats. Group numbers vary from n= 6 to 8 rats. Mechanical nociceptive responses were assessed using von Frey fibers while descending control of nociception (DCN) involved hindpaw sensitization with PGE2 followed by a capsaicin-test stimulus to the forepaw. Pharmacological studies employed the administration of the selective noradrenergic (NA) reuptake inhibitor, reboxetine (RBX), NA receptor blockers, prazosin and 5-HT7 receptor antagonist, SB-269970. Neuropathological studies were used to quantify axonal damage and neuroinflammatory changes. DATA USAGE NOTES: