Papers of the Week

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes neurodegeneration, impairs locomotor function, and impacts the quality of life particularly in those individuals that develop neuropathic pain. Whether the time course of neurodegeneration, locomotor impairment, or neuropathic pain varies with sex, however, remains understudied. Therefore, the objective of this study in male and female C57BL/6 mice was to evaluate the following outcomes for six weeks after a 75-kdyn thoracic contusion SCI: locomotor function using the Basso Mouse Scale (BMS); spinal cord tissue sparing and rostral-caudal lesion length; and mechanical allodynia and heat hyperalgesia using hindpaw application of Von Frey filaments or radiant heat stimuli, respectively. Although motor function was largely similar between sexes, all of the males, but only half of the females, recovered plantar stepping. Rostral-caudal lesion length was shorter in females than in males. All animals, regardless of sex, developed mechanical allodynia and heat hyperalgesia after SCI; there were no differences in pain outcomes between sexes. We conclude that contusion SCI yields subtle sex differences in mice depending on the outcome measure but no significant differences in behavioral signs of neuropathic pain.