• Nobuhisa Sasaki, Shin-ichi Kikuchi, Shin-ichi Konno, Miho Sekiguchi, and Kazuyuki Watanabe.
• Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima City, Fukushima, Japan. non@fmu.ac.jp
• Spine. 2007 Feb 15;32(4):413-6.

Study DesignAn experimental animal study.ObjectiveTo study if antitumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) antibody, which is administered at different times, reduces the pain behavior induced by application of nucleus pulposus (NP) to the nerve root.Summary Of Background DataTreatment with TNF-alpha inhibitor reduces the pain-related behavior induced by epidural application of NP in rats.MethodsLeft L5 partial laminectomy was performed and NP was applied to the L5 nerve root in 24 rats. The rats were divided into 4 groups. In 3 groups, anti-rat TNF-alpha antibody was intravenously administered immediately after, or 6 or 20 days after NP application. The fourth group was not treated with anti-rat TNF-alpha antibody (untreated rats). The withdrawal threshold of the plantar surface was determined 1 day before up through 28 days after NP application.ResultsThe withdrawal threshold of rats that had been treated with anti-rat TNF-alpha antibody immediately after or 6 days after, but not 20 days after, NP application, was significantly higher than that of the untreated rats.ConclusionsAnti-TNF-alpha antibody reduced allodynia only when it was administered soon after the onset of allodynia. Late administration of anti-TNF-alpha antibody did not have an antiallodynic effect.

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