Augmented Pain and Inflammation with Obesity: A Role for the Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Visfatin

Author Info

Nasser M Alorfi Sharron Dolan

Corresponding Author

Sharron Dolan
Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK

A B S T R A C T

Obesity is associated with several co-morbidities including chronic pain. Systemic low-grade chronic inflammation and dysregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines have been proposed to underlie these phenomena. This study characterized pain and inflammation, and levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine visfatin, in a rodent model of obesity, and investigated whether treatment with the visfatin inhibitor, FK866, has anti-inflammatory and/or analgesic effects in normal and obese rats. The effects of pre-administration of FK866 (3, 10 mg/kg; i.p.) on carrageenan (3%; i.d. into the left paw)-induced thermal and mechanical hypersensitivity and paw oedema was measured in adult male Wistar rats fed a normal diet (ND) or high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. HFD-fed rats displayed an increased sensitivity to acute mechanical nociceptive stimulation, and potentiated mechanical hyperalgesia and peripheral inflammation to carrageenan. Levels of circulating visfatin were increased in HFD-fed rats. Treatment with FK866, a visfatin inhibitor, was effective in reducing carrageenan-induced hyperalgesia and paw oedema in both ND-fed and HFD-fed rats. These data show that FK866 has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. The potentiated response to pain and inflammation, and elevated visfatin levels in HFD-fed rats supports the hypothesis that obesity is a chronic low-grade inflammatory disorder. Reversal of this co-morbidity by blocking visfatin may be a novel therapeutic strategy for managing pain with obesity.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Thu 08, Jul 2021
Accepted: Sat 24, Jul 2021
Published: Mon 09, Aug 2021

Copyright

© 2023 Sharron Dolan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.NNB.2021.03.01