The Monosodium Iodoacetate Model of Osteoarthritis Pain in the Rat

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one form of degenerative joint disease characterized by progressive loss of articular cartilage, decreased function and is frequently accompanied by chronic pain. Given the success of arthroplasty as a treatment for late-stage OA, there is considerable interest in developing therapies pertaining to the management of pain associated with OA as well as therapies designed to slow or reverse the progression of the disease. To this end, establishment of relevant animal models that are amenable to testing novel therapies is of considerable value to the scientific community. Here, we describe a model of OA-related pain in which progressive joint destruction is induced by injection of monosodium iodoacetate into the articular space of the knee of the rat. Further, we describe three different methods to measure pain-related behaviors in this model: hind limb weight bearing, primary mechanical hyperalgesia, and hind limb grip strength.