Progress in animal models of trigeminal neuralgia

Abstract

Objective: This review aims to systematically summarize the methods of establishing various models of trigeminal neuralgia (TN), the scope of application, and current animals used in TN research and the corresponding pain measurements, hoping to provide valuable reference for researchers to select appropriate TN animal models and make contributions to the research of pathophysiology and management of the disease.

Design: The related literatures of TN were searched through PubMed database using different combinations of the following terms and keywords including but not limited: animal models, trigeminal neuralgia, orofacial neuropathic pain. To find the maximum number of eligible articles, no filters were used in the search. The references of eligible studies were analyzed and reviewed comprehensively.

Results: This study summarized the current animal models of TN, categorized them into the following groups: chemical induction, photochemical induction, surgery and genetic engineering, and introduced various measurement methods to evaluate animal pain behaviors.

Conclusions: Although a variety of methods are used to establish disease models, there is no ideal TN model that can reflect all the characteristics of the disease. Therefore, there is still a need to develop more novel animal models in order to further study the etiology, pathological mechanism and potential treatment of TN.

Keywords: Allodynia; Etiology; Pain measurements; Rodents; Trigeminal nerve.