Pattern of biphasic response to various noxious stimuli in rats ingesting sucrose ad libitum

Sucrose ingestion is reported to produce an initial (20-30 min) analgesia and late (<5 h) hyperalgesia. However, the influence of the characteristics of noxious stimuli and sweet substances on the pattern of transition from analgesia to hyperalgesia is not known. Therefore, we investigated the effect of sucrose (20%, sucrose fed group), saccharin (0.1%, saccharin fed group) and water ingestion (control group) on pain responses to various noxious stimuli for 5 h. Latency of motor response of tail (TFL), paws to noxious thermal stimuli, threshold for elicitation of motor responses to electrical stimulation of tail nociceptive afferents in 5 sessions (0, 0.25, 1, 3 and 5 h) and pain-related behavior to tonic noxious stimulus in 3 sessions at 1, 3 and 5 h were recorded. In sucrose fed rats as compared to controls, the TFL sequentially increased (9.29 ± 0.47 s from 8.41 ± 0.25; p < 0.01), recovered to base-line and decreased (6.61 ± 0.61 sec; p < 0.0001) in sessions II, III and V indicating analgesia, eualgesia and hyperalgesia, respectively. In saccharin fed rats the initial analgesia extended until session III followed by eualgesia and hyperalgesia in sessions IV and V. Pain related behaviour to tonic noxious stimulus also indicated an initial analgesia (0-5 min), intermediate eualgesia and late hyperalgesia (3-5 h) in sucrose fed rats, whereas only analgesia in saccharin fed rats. The results of our study suggest that sucrose ingestion for 5 h leads to a bi-phasic response to both phasic and tonic noxious stimuli, albeit there are variations in their durations. Therefore, the temporal relationship of the nociceptive responses to palatable food is a function of the stimulus quality of both.