Aspirin clearly depresses responses of ventrobasal thalamus neurons to joint stimuli in arthritic rats

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Abstract
The effect of aspirin on activities of 17 ventrobasal thalamic neurons was recorded in 17 rats rendered arthritic by injection of Freund''s adjuvant into the tail. These neurons presented reproducible responses to mobilization and/or mold lateral pressure on a joint and were recorded for at least 40 min after aspirin administration. After i.v. injection of aspirin at the dose of 50 mg/kg (13 neurons tested), there was a progressive decrease in the number of spikes in the discharges. The maximum effect occurred at 30 min where the mean value of the response expressed as a percentage of the control was m = 34.62 .+-. 7.5% (n = 13, P .ltoreq. 0.001). Recovery was progressive and could be considered as complete at 60 min. By contrast, no significant modification of the spontaneous firing was observed. With lower doses of aspirin, 12.5 or 25 mg/kg tested with 4 neurons, there was, respectively, no clear depressive effect or only a transient decrease of the response.