EFFECTS OF CAPSAICIN ON RAT SCIATIC NERVE IN VINCRISTINE-INDUCED NEUROPATHIC PAIN MODEL

Capsaicin, the pungent ingredient of red pepper, is used topically to treat different types of neuropathic pain, in rat model of vincristine induced neuropathic pain we tried to investigate the effect of capsaicin on sciatic nerve through electrophysiological and histopathological studies. We found that treatment of animals with vincristine results in significant decrease in sciatic nerve conduction velocity and degeneration of the nerve fibers, where combined treatment of vincristine and capsaicin showed highly significant decrease in sciatic nerve conduction velocity and degeneration of the nerve fibers compared with that treated with vincristine only. In new trial, we tried to investigate the effect of direct capsaicin titration on sciatic nerve fibers that results in nearly abolishment of nerve conduction velocity. All of these findings may illustrate the mechanism of capsaicin effect through afferent nerves degeneration.