Publication: Thermoregulatory correlates of nausea in rats and musk shrews
Accepted Date
2014-02-21
Issued Date
2014
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eng
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Mahidol University
Bibliographic Citation
Oncotarget. Vol.5, No.6 (2014), 1565-1575
Suggested Citation
Sukonthar Ngampramuan, Matteo Cerri, Flavia Del Vecchio, Corrigan, Joshua J, Amornrat Kamphee, Dragic, Alexander S, Rudd, John A, Romanovsky, Andrej A, Eugene Nalivaiko Thermoregulatory correlates of nausea in rats and musk shrews. Oncotarget. Vol.5, No.6 (2014), 1565-1575. Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/1814
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Title
Thermoregulatory correlates of nausea in rats and musk shrews
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Abstract
Nausea is a prominent symptom and major cause of complaint for patients
receiving anticancer chemo- or radiation therapy. The arsenal of anti-nausea
drugs is limited, and their efficacy is questionable. Currently, the development of
new compounds with anti-nausea activity is hampered by the lack of physiological
correlates of nausea. Physiological correlates are needed because common laboratory
rodents lack the vomiting reflex. Furthermore, nausea does not always lead to
vomiting. Here, we report the results of studies conducted in four research centers
to investigate whether nausea is associated with any specific thermoregulatory
symptoms. Two species were studied: the laboratory rat, which has no vomiting
reflex, and the house musk shrew (Suncus murinus), which does have a vomiting
reflex. In rats, motion sickness was induced by rotating them in their individual cages
in the horizontal plane (0.75 Hz, 40 min) and confirmed by reduced food consumption
at the onset of dark (active) phase. In 100% of rats tested at three centers, postrotational
sickness was associated with marked (~1.5°C) hypothermia, which was
associated with a short-lasting tail-skin vasodilation (skin temperature increased
by ~4°C). Pretreatment with ondansetron, a serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonist,
which is used to treat nausea in patients in chemo- or radiation therapy, attenuated
hypothermia by ~30%. In shrews, motion sickness was induced by a cyclical backand-forth
motion (4 cm, 1 Hz, 15 min) and confirmed by the presence of retching
and vomiting. In this model, sickness was also accompanied by marked hypothermia
(~2°C). Like in rats, the hypothermic response was preceded by transient tail-skin
vasodilation. In conclusion, motion sickness is accompanied by hypothermia that
involves both autonomic and thermoeffector mechanisms: tail-skin vasodilation
and possibly reduction of the interscapular brown adipose tissue activity. These
thermoregulatory symptoms may serve as physiological correlates of nausea.