Models & Assays
Painful Diabetic Neuropathy
Approximately half of diabetic patients develop a progressive small fiber neuropathy which is often accompanied by spontaneous pain as well as exaggerated evoked pain responses. In rodents, Type 1 diabetes can be induced with streptozotocin, a toxin which specifically ablates insulin-producing β cells in the pancreas, while Type 2 diabetes can be studied using transgenic mice such as the db/db model. In each case animals develop a painful neuropathy manifesting as mechanical allodynia in the von Frey test that can be alleviated with pregabalin treatment.
