Abstract #1198

Reduced BOLD Response in Mice Lacking Nociceptor Specific Sodium Channels (Nav1.7) Indicates Altered Pain Processing

Simone Claudia Bosshard¹, Christof Baltes¹, Markus Rudin^1,2

¹Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zrich, Zurich, Switzerland; ²Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8057, Switzerland

Electrical stimulation of the forepaws is a widely used stimulation paradigm in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used transgenic mice lacking the voltage-gated sodium channel Nav 1.7 specifically at the nociceptors (Nav1.7R-/-) to study altered pain sensitivity. Nav1.7R-/-, WT littermates and WT animals of our lab were examined using BOLD fMRI. The detected BOLD signal changes of the Nav1.7R-/- animals were significantly reduced as compared to the two WT groups. This is in line with behavioral data reported for these mice. This proves our method to be a valuable tool to non-invasively study pain processing in mice.